India’s liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) sales from the industrial and commercial segment declined to one of its lowest on record in March as the West Asia conflict choked imports of the commodity forcing the government to prioritise supply to households for cooking.
Sales from the LPG packed non-domestic segment fell by 48 per cent y-o-y and 59 per cent m-o-m to around 1.13 lakh tonnes on a provisional basis, data from Petroleum Planning & Analysis Cell (PPAC) showed.
Similarly, the sale to LPG packaged domestic consumers, or simply households, fell by 8.1 per cent y-o-y and 7.8 per cent m-o-m to 25.78 lakh tonnes—the lowest in the last financial year.
As of March, India has around 33.40 crore active domestic LPG consumers, of which more than 10.50 crore are PM Ujjwala Yojna (PNUY) beneficiaries. India also has over 25,600 distributors of the commodity.
West Asia conflict
The steep decline in sales from both the domestic and commercial sectors is on account of lower availability of the cooking fuel due to the West Asia conflict, which has led to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz (SoH)—the main transit route for India’s LPG imports.
The world’s second largest LPG importer procures 60 per cent of its LPG and about 90 per cent of that normally transits the SoH. When the route came under stress, monthly imports fell from 2.04 million tonnes (mt) in February 2026 to 1.12 mt in last month, a 45 per cent decline on a monthly basis.
The closure of the critical energy choke point since February 28, 2026 has severely impacted India’s imports, which in normal times stood at around 54,000 tonnes per day (TPD) and has come down to roughly 30,000 TPD.
The consumption of LPG by India, the world’s third largest consumer, fell by almost 16 per cent m-o-m and 13 per cent y-o-y to 2.38 million tonnes (mt) on a provisional basis—the lowest in the last 21 months.
Meanwhile, at the inter-ministerial briefing on West Asia on Thursday, Sujata Sharma, Joint Secretary in the Oil Ministry, said that LPG supply continues to be affected by the prevailing geopolitical situation. However, no dry-outs were reported at LPG distributorships.
The government has been prioritising 100 per cent LPG supply to households. Commercial consumers are receiving 70 per cent of pre-crisis levels, including 10 per cent reform-linked allocation.
Since April 1, more than 17 lakh 5kg free trade LPG (FTL) cylinders have been sold. Besides, PSU oil marketing companies (OMCs) have organised more than 8,200 awareness camps for 5Kg cylinders, wherein more than 1,27,000 cylinders were sold (since April 3).
Similarly, a total of 1,40,362 tonnes, equivalent to more than 73.87 lakh 19 kg LPG cylinders, were sold to commercial LPG consumers ((till April 22).
Published on April 23, 2026