Loading…
The Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas stated that 67% of India's LPG imports now originate from the United States.
India is the world's second-largest LPG importer, consuming over 34 million metric tonnes annually.
Nearly 90% of India's historical LPG imports passed through the Strait of Hormuz.
Saudi Aramco Contract Price rose from about $543 per tonne in February 2026 to around $790 per tonne in June 2026.
OMC under-recoveries exceeded Rs 59,000 crore as of July 2026.
LPG is a clean-burning, high-energy flammable mixture composed primarily of propane (C3H8) and butane (C4H10). It has two production routes. About 60% of global yield comes from natural gas processing, where it is extracted as Natural Gas Liquids from 'wet' gas wells through cooling, absorption and fractionation. The remaining 40% or so comes as a secondary product of crude oil refining — atmospheric distillation, catalytic cracking and hydroprocessing. In both cases the gas is stripped of impurities such as sulphur and then compressed or cooled into liquid form, which is what makes bulk transport by sea tanker and cylinder possible.
Simple Analogy: Compressing the gas is what turns a balloon's worth of fuel into a bottle's worth.
An under-recovery is the gap between what it costs an oil marketing company to import and supply a fuel and what it is allowed to charge for it. When international LPG prices rise and the government holds retail cooking gas prices steady — as it tends to, because cooking gas is politically sensitive — the state refiners absorb the difference. It accumulates on their books rather than appearing at the pump, which is why the burden shows up as a fiscal and balance-sheet problem instead of a consumer price shock. As of July 2026 that accumulated figure exceeded Rs 59,000 crore.
Simple Analogy: The bill does not disappear because the customer was not charged — it moves to someone else's account.
GS Paper III > Energy Security; GS Paper II > India and the World
General Awareness > Economy and International Trade
General Awareness > Economy and Energy
In India, the steel production industry requires the import of
Answer: coking coal
Liquefied Petroleum Gas — a mixture mainly of propane (C3H8) and butane (C4H10), used for cooking and industry.
Hydrocarbons extracted from 'wet' natural gas, the source of about 60% of global LPG yield.
The Gulf benchmark price for LPG; Mont Belvieu is the corresponding US benchmark for propane.
The gap between an oil marketing company's cost of supply and the regulated retail price it may charge.
A narrow maritime choke point connecting the Persian Gulf to the open sea, through which nearly 90% of India's historical LPG imports passed.