Neeraj Mittal, Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, on Thursday emphasised that the key lesson for India — the world’s third-largest importer of hydrocarbons — is to factor-in adverse situations, such as those arising from the West Asian conflict, while planning country-wide infrastructure for energy commodities.
Speaking at a conference on energy security, Mittal assured that India’s LPG supply situation is normal with vessels continuing to arrive through the Strait of Hormuz (SoH) despite an escalation in hostilities in West Asia.
“The timing of this event couldn’t have been any better. It’s only when we are faced with adversity (that) we can actually see the chinks in our armour. I think this conference is timed with having seen 39 days of adversity, and timed with a time to pause where the adversity possibly is going away. But, the absolute earliest (is that) we would have re-looked at our strategy,” said the Secretary.
Everything at stake
Of the 33 million tonnes (mt) of LPG that India consumed in FY25, 20.67 per cent is imported, with almost 90 per cent of the imports transiting the SoH. Post February 28, 2026, India’s LPG imports from West Asia turned into a trickle, compounding problems for the government given the dependence of over 33 crore households’ on the commodity.
Mittal added, “West Asia and the Gulf crisis have shown that what we develop as national infrastructure and when things are not as bad as they could be, we forget to plan for adversities. If you look at our energy dependency, world’s energy dependence, and the SoH, it is roughly 20 per cent, but our’s in all three (crude, LNG and LPG) is more than that.”
India sources crude oil from 41 countries, natural gas from 30 countries, and LPG from 15 countries. These factors must be considered while framing future energy security policies, including setting up related ecosystem and infrastructure, he added.
Published on April 9, 2026