India’s Fuel Consumption Climbs Even as LPG Supplies Tighten

Fuel consumption in India last month reached 21.37 million tons, which was the highest since December 2025, government data showed this week. The figure was also an increase on February’s total of 20.19 million tons.

Consumption of liquefied petroleum gas, on the other hand, dropped last month due to the supply disruption from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the data, as cited by Reuters, also showed.

India is one of the three biggest consumers of LPG globally and sources 90% of its imports of the fuel from Middle Eastern producers. Last year, India’s PLG consumption hit 33.15 million metric tons, of which 60% came from imports.

Amid the supply shortage caused by the war in the Middle East, the Indian government has cut LPG supplies to commercial establishments and industries to have more cooking gas available for household use. Authorities are also pushing for an expansion of the city’s pipeline gas networks to replace LPG cylinders and use them where possible.

Meanwhile, reports have suggested that at least three LPG carriers have been allowed by Iran to pass through the Strait of Hormuz after New Delhi and Tehran negotiated a deal in March. Crude oil exports from the Middle East to the subcontinent, however, have plunged, prompting economists to revise down India’s GDP outlook. The outlook is still much stronger than that for European economies, also hurt by the energy crisis ignited by the war in the Middle East.

Indian oil buyers, in the meantime, switched to Russian crude, with imports soaring 90% in March after a subdued few months following the U.S. imposing fresh sanctions specifically targeting the country’s largest oil exporters, Rosneft and Lukoil, last November. Overall crude oil imports into India, however, dropped by a sizable 15% in March due to the Hormuz traffic disruption.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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