An inter-ministerial Joint Working Group (JWG) has been set up to ensure availability of petrochemical feedstock supply for the domestic market. | Photo Credit: MAIL PIC

The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG) said on Wednesday that it will now make available 1,000 tonnes per day (TPD) of C3 (propane) and C4 (butanes/ butenes) streams for critical sectors such as pharma, packaging, polymers, etc.

The government introduced this scheme on April 1, under which refining companies including petrochemical complexes have to make available certain minimum quantities of C3 and C4 streams for critical sectors under the Department of Pharmaceuticals, Department of Food & Public Distribution, Department of Chemicals & Petro Chemicals, etc.

The allocation is based on specific quantity and refinery source as determined by the Centre for High Technology (CHT). On April 8, the government allocated 800 TPD from the C3 and C4 streams to these critical sectors. This allocation has now been raised by 25 per cent to 1,000 TPD.

Sujata Sharma, Joint Secretary in MoPNG, said an inter-ministerial Joint Working Group (JWG) has been set up to ensure availability of petrochemical feedstock supply for the domestic market.

“Based on the requests received from the Department of Pharmaceuticals, Department of Chemicals & Petro Chemicals (DCPC), Department for Promotion of Industry and internal trade (DPIIT), the provision for 1,000 TPD from LPG pool has been made for Pharma and Chemical sector companies. Since April 9, 2026, around 1,800 tonnes of propylene has been sold,” she added.

Domestic supply

Despite the ongoing geopolitical situation, the government has ensured 100 per cent supply to domestic LPG, domestic PNG and CNG (Transport). Besides, the supply of 5 Kg FTL cylinder to migrant labour has already been doubled based on average daily supply on March 2n^d and 3r^d (2026).

LPG supply continues to be affected by the prevailing geopolitical situation. However, no dry-outs have been reported at LPG distributorships, Sharma said.

Total commercial LPG allocation has been increased to about 70 per cent of pre-crisis levels, including 10 per cent piped natural gas (PNG) reform-linked allocation.

Since March 23, more than 14.6 lakh 5-kg Free Trade LPG (FTL) cylinders have been sold. Besides, PSU oil marketing companies (OMCs) have organised more than 5,000 awareness camps for 5 Kg FTL cylinders since April 3, wherein more than 57,800 units were also sold.

A total of 1,34,226 tonnes of commercial LPG, which is equivalent to more than 70.64 lakh 19-Kg LPG cylinders, has been sold since March 14. This includes more than 8,000 tonnes of auto LPG. The average auto LPG sale by PSU OMCs in April (till April 14, 2026) is around 282 TPD against the average of 177 TPD during February 2026.

Since March, about 4.5 lakh PNG connections have been gasified and another 5 lakh customers have registered for new connections. As on date, more than 34,200 PNG consumers have surrendered their LPG connections via MYPNGD.in website.

Published on April 15, 2026