New Delhi: Two Indian-flagged Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) tankers, which had been anchored in the Persian Gulf, have started movement and have safely crossed over to the east of the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, ship tracking data shows. The two vessels are named Jag Vasant and Pine Gas and are carrying around 92,612 Tonnes of LPG, said Rajesh Kumar Sinha, Special Secretary, Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, at an inter-ministerial briefing on Monday. India’s daily LPG consumption in around 80,000-85,000 tonnes of LPG in a day.
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According to ship tracking data, while Jag Vasant is headed to Kandla port in Gujarat, Pine Gas is enroute New Mangalore port in Karnataka. The tankers are expected to reach India between March 26 and 28, according to the Shipping Ministry.
On being asked if the movement is a result of the conversation that took place between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian on March 21, the occasion of Eid, when the PM called for “freedom of navigation,” Randhir Jaiswal, Additional Secretary for the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said, “We continue to stay in touch with countries concerned to ensure the safe and uninterrupted transit of our energy requirements.”
Among the 20 Indian vessels now stuck in Hormuz, Sinha said, “There is one vessel which is carrying LNG; it is chartered by Petronet LNG. There are seven LPG vessels chartered by BPCL and HPCL. The crude oil vessels are chartered by Indian Oil, Reliance and BGN International.”
Last week, the officials said that 1.6 Million Tonnes (MT) of crude oil, 200,000 tonnes of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) and 300,000 tonnes of LPG were stranded in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow chokepoint which connects the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman.
Sujata Sharma, Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, said that domestic LPG production is now meeting 50-60 percent of the country’s demand. “I think our domestic production is covering about 50 to 60 percent of our demand,” said the official at the press briefing. Sharma said that since 90 percent of India’s LPG was coming via the Strait of Hormuz, India needs a lot of LPG and is picking up cargoes wherever available and is also supplementing the supplies through domestic production. Earlier this month, the government diverted Propane and Butane streams exclusively towards the production of LPG.
In addition, the government has been urging consumers of LPG to shift to Piped Natural Gas (PNG) since there’s better availability of natural gas and its imports are more diversified in comparison to LPG. “More than 3.5 lakh domestic and commercial PNG connections have been issued/activated during first three weeks of March 2026 by CGD entities,” said the Joint Secretary.
The government had already restored partial commercial LPG supply (20 percent) to consumers. Further, through a letter dated March 18, the government had proposed to allocate additional 10 percent of commercial LPG to states based on ease of doing business reforms for PNG expansion.
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Through another letter dated March 21, the government has allowed another 20 percent allocation of commercial LPG to states, which would take the overall allocation to 50 percent (including 10 percent allocation based on ease of doing reforms for PNG expansion). “This additional 20 percent allocation shall be given on priority to sectors like restaurants, dhabas, hotels, industrial canteens, food processing/dairy, subsidised canteens/outlets run by State Government or local bodies for food, community kitchens, 5 Kg FTL for migrant labourers,” said Sharma.