Due to panic booking, the number of cylinder bookings had touched almost 88 lakh on March 13. (File Photo)Even as India’s liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) imports remain highly constrained due to the West Asia conflict, there has been a notable decline in panic booking among household consumers of LPG, with latest-available daily cylinder bookings now close to the pre-war levels, the government said on Thursday. According to Petroleum Ministry Joint Secretary Sujata Sharma, bookings fell to around 57 lakh on Wednesday; the pre-conflict daily average was 55.7 lakh cylinders. Due to panic booking, the number of cylinder bookings had touched almost 88 lakh on Friday (March 13).Sharma said that while the supply situation remains concerning, oil marketing companies are maintaining LPG supplies at pre-conflict levels of around 50 lakh cylinders a day. On Wednesday, they delivered close to 55 lakh LPG cylinders to households, and no dry-outs had been reported at any of the 25,000-off LPG dealerships across the country, she said. During the peak panic booking phase, OMCs were delivering over 60 lakh cylinders a day. While supplies to household consumers are being maintained, supplies to commercial and industrial consumers are heavily impacted, with just 20% of their requirement being allocated by the Centre and distributed through state governments.With the effective halt in maritime traffic through the critical chokepoint of the Strait of Hormuz, India’s LPG supplies have been majorly hit. The country depends on imports to meet 60% of its LPG needs, and 90% of those flow through the Strait of Hormuz—the narrow maritime passage between Iran and Oman that connects the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman. This effectively means that roughly 55% of India’s LPG consumption volumes are currently unavailable. While the government has prioritised LPG supplies to households, commercial and industrial users like restaurants are facing severe shortages of the fuel.Apart from prioritising LPG supplies to households over commercial and industrial consumers, the government ordered refiners to maximise LPG production, and directed them to divert propane, butane, and other streams from petrochemical manufacturing to LPG production. On Wednesday, Sharma has said that these measures have led to an increase of 40% in domestic LPG production vis-à-vis pre-West Asia conflict levels, and a further increase is likely over the next few days. The government has also increased waiting times between cylinder bookings by households from 21 days to 25 days in urban areas and 45 days in rural areas to check hoarding behaviour and manage demand and supply. The government has also activated alternative fuel streams like kerosene, fuel oil, biomass, and even coal for commercial consumers to help them cover their LPG shortfall.This government has also appealed to LPG consumers—commercial users as well as households—to shift to piped natural gas (PNG), wherever feasible, to take some pressure off of LPG supplies. According to Sharma, 1.25 lakh new natural gas connections—including domestic, commercial, industrial, and compressed natural gas (CNG)—have been given over the past couple of weeks. She also said that around 5,600 LPG consumers have shifted to PNG over the past few days.Although natural gas supplies to India have also been hit due to the Strait of Hormuz’s closure, the situation is not as concerning as in the case of LPG. India depends on imports to meet roughly half of its natural gas needs, with 55-60% of the imports coming through the Strait. Over the past few days, the government has been appealing to consumers to switch to PNG if it is available in their vicinity. Some CGD companies have also announced incentives like some volumes of free gas and waiver of connection charges to encourage consumers to sign up for PNG connections. The Centre has also urged states to to help expedite expansion of PNG access and coverage, and has even offered additional commercial LPG allocation if they take certain specific steps to expedite permissions to city gas distribution (CGD) companies to lay the requisite infrastructure and reduce certain levies they are charged.The Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) has also advised CGD companies to deploy additional resources and step up outreach to provide connections quickly to consumers wherever networks are available. According to the government’s estimates, there are roughly 60 lakh households that are in the vicinity of PNG coverage, and can quickly switch to piped gas connections. As against 33.3 crore households with LPG connections, the number for PNG connections stands at around 1.5 crore. But while LPG is supplied in portable cylinders, PNG requires pipeline connectivity at the doorstep.Sukalp Sharma is a Deputy Associate Editor with The Indian Express and writes on a host of subjects and sectors, notably energy and aviation. He has over 16 years of experience in journalism with a body of work spanning areas like politics, development, equity markets, corporates, trade, and economic policy. He considers himself an above-average photographer, which goes well with his love for travel. ... Read More © The Indian Express Pvt Ltd