There is a small silver lining to the ongoing West Asia conflict, considered the biggest energy-related disruption in history, as the war and acute scarcity of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) forced India to push aggressively towards piped natural gas (PNG), which has been gradually expanding but not at the pace expected.
For instance, India had around 1.67 crore domestic PNG (DPNG) connections as of February 2026, against a Minimum Work Programme Target (MWPT) of roughly 12.64 crore and a Pro-rata Target (PT) of almost 3.99 crore. The achievement is 42 per cent of the PT.
The crisis pushed the Oil Ministry to cumulatively add more than 10.69 lakh PNG connections, including those that have been gasified. This is a record addition with March alone locking in 6.1 lakh connections. Since March 15, 2026, on an average, more than 10,000 new PNG connections have been provided on a daily basis.
As the conflict impacted 60 per cent of India’s LPG imports, the government immediately prioritised providing household PNG connections in areas where pipeline infrastructure is in place with a focus on targeting nearly 30 lakh connections.
There are a total of 60 lakh LPG connections near operating city gas distribution (CGD) networks that can easily migrate to PNG.
Sujata Sharma, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, said on Tuesday, “Since March 2026, more than 5.01 lakh PNG connections have been gasified. Further, more than 5.68 lakh customers have been registered for new connections.”
During March 2026, over 3.25 lakh connections were gasified, and over 2.85 lakh new connections were installed.
Targeted measures
The government has issued a series of targeted measures to manage disruptions in LPG supply while strengthening the gas-based energy ecosystem. Key interventions include the LPG (Regulation of Supply and Distribution) Amendment Order and the Natural Gas & Petroleum Products Distribution Gazette Notification.
A significant reform initiative linking the allocation of commercial LPG with the expansion of the CGD network in States has already begun to yield positive results, leading to accelerated infrastructure growth and improved last-mile connectivity.
Besides, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) launched the three-month-long National PNG Drive in January 2026 to accelerate the rollout of CGD infrastructure. It yielded significant results with CGD entities developing additional DPNG infrastructure for 6.5 lakh connections till March 31, 2026.
Gas supply commenced for nearly 5.29 lakh domestic and 2,457 commercial consumers. In addition, 11 new geographical areas have been connected to the Natural Gas Pipeline network.
This drive has now been extended till June 2026.
Published on April 21, 2026