Noida typically has two to five days’ supply of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in stock. For its 10 lakh customers, bookings and deliveries move like clockwork. Households normally keep two cylinders — when one runs out, a replacement is ordered while the spare is put to use.Since Israel and US rained missiles into Iran and Tehran hit back, this routine has been disrupted. Supply constraints have affected commercial food businesses and canteens, which have run out of LPG and have not been able to get refills, and triggered panic booking by domestic LPG consumers, who are worried about a cascading impact should the West Asia conflict continue.Yet, not all kitchens felt the pinch. Homes connected to piped natural gas (PNG), delivered directly through pipelines, have largely gone about their routines undisturbed. So why has the cooking routine been disrupted for some, but not others? The answer lies in supply chains. India meets 60% of its domestic LPG demands through imports, around 90% of which comes from the Gulf — UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. These exports must pass through Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s busiest energy shipping routes that Tehran has shut down as it uses oil and gas dependence on the waterway as a leverage. Tanker movements have slowed, with vessels delayed, rerouted, or operating under tight security conditions. As a result, LPG cargoes are taking longer to reach major Asian importing countries like India.For India, the US has emerged as an additional source of gas, but West Asia remains central to India’s LPG basket. “Some imports also come from Norway and Nigeria,” says Narendra Taneja, a Delhi-based energy expert.Both LPG and PNG originate from similar geological sources — hydrocarbons trapped deep underground. But from that point, their journeys diverge sharply. “When you drill, sometimes you find oil with gas, sometimes only gas. Nature has stored them together in different proportions,” says Taneja.For Delhi-NCR, this difference matters because the region has one of India’s most developed PNG gas networks. As a result, LPG users here are more exposed to import-linked turbulences. This is why, since the West Asia conflict broke out, the Centre has been pushing to expand city gas coverage, urging people in areas that have PNG networks to switch to piped gas if they haven’t.Ghaziabad has 12 lakh LPG consumers. Noida delivers 18,000 to 20,000 cylinders to homes daily, while Ghaziabad delivers 20,000-22,000 a day.Ship to kitchenPropane and butane, the key components of LPG, are separated from natural gas, liquefied and loaded onto specialised tankers. “Both propane and butane are gases, but under pressure, they turn into liquid. That is how we store LPG in cylinders that are delivered to our homes,” explains Hemant Mallya, fellow at Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW). “Typically, what we call LPG is about 60% butane and 40% propane.”There’s a vast supply chain behind this. LPG comes from three sources, explains Mallya. “One is from crude oil refineries. Companies like IndianOil process crude oil to make petrol, diesel and other products. In that process, they also produce some LPG. The second source is domestic natural gas production. Some LPG is extracted from the natural gas that we produce in India. For example, Gas Authority of India Ltd (GAIL) has a plant in Pata (Auraiya, UP) to extract a certain amount of LPG. Imports are a third and major source,” he says.According to Petroleum Planning & Analysis Cell (PPAC) data, India produced 12.78 MMT (million metric tons) of LPG from refineries in 2024-25, while imports added 20.66 MMT. Total consumption stood at 31.32 MMT. Once imported LPG reaches Indian shores, it is pumped from ships into storage tanks and transported by pipelines, trains or road tankers to bottling plants — the backbone of the country’s distribution system.“Typically, LPG produced at refineries is bottled at facilities located at or near the refinery itself. In some cases, it may be transported to other bottling plants,” says Taneja. India has 23 refineries with a combined capacity of 256.8 MMTPA.Most imported LPG arrives via Gujarat, through ports like Mundra, Vadinar, Kandla and Pipavav. Tankers also offload LPG at JNPT in Mumbai and New Mangalore on the west coast and Visakhapatnam, Ennore, Paradip and Haldia on the east coast.A major supply line for LPG to north India is the Jamnagar-Loni pipeline, making the Ghaziabad town a hub for LPG bottling and distribution. This pipeline has five other ‘take-off points’ — locations where the transported gas is withdrawn for distribution — at Ajmer and Jaipur in Rajasthan, Piyala and Gurgaon in Haryana, and Madanpur Khadar in Delhi.India’s scale of LPG use is staggering: over 34 crore households are LPG consumers, serviced by more than 25,000 distributors and 214 bottling plants. At every stage, LPG changes form: it starts as a mix of gases underground, is separated and liquefied for transport, stored in tanks and cylinders, and finally vaporises back into gas when released for household use.PNG more stable While PNG isn’t completely immune to global shocks, its pipeline system and continuous flow make it more resilient than the LPG supply chain, which relies on ships, storage, bottling and road transport.PNG is mostly methane that comes from a mix of domestic production and imported liquefied natural gas (LNG), which is regasified at terminals before being fed into the national gas grid. Natural gas in India is produced either offshore — such as from fields in the Arabian Sea — or onshore in regions like Krishna-Godavari basin. “Offshore means drilling in the seabed — like ONGC’s operations in Bombay High. Onshore production happens on land,” says Mallya.Once gas is extracted, it is transported to a processing unit. Impurities like water and carbon dioxide are removed. What remains is methane, which is compressed and sent through high-pressure, large-diameter pipelines to city gas distribution companies.These pipelines form India’s national gas grid — a network that currently spans about 24,000 km, of which 15,978 km is in operation. GAIL alone accounts for around 11,005 km of this network, according to PPAC data.India’s gas grid links production sites, LNG terminals and distribution networks. The country has eight LNG terminals. In case of LNG import, the process is slightly different. “Natural gas is first processed and liquefied at -160 degrees Celsius in the source country. It is transported in specialised tankers to LNG terminals and stored in in large cryogenic tanks,” Mallya says. The LNG is then converted back to gaseous form by heating, according to demand.In 2024-25, India produced 35,595 MMSCM (million metric standard cubic metres) of LNG domestically — 25,709 MMSCM offshore and 9,885 MMSCM onshore — while imports added 35,720 MMSCM. Total consumption for the year was 71,314 MMSCM, meaning roughly half of the country’s PNG supply comes from abroad.Can we make more LPG?During supply stress, refineries can adjust their processes to produce more LPG by breaking down heavier hydrocarbons into lighter ones like propane and butane, though this comes at an energy and economic cost.“The reason we don’t produce enough LPG domestically is the nature of crude oil we process. It doesn’t yield large amounts of propane and butane. Refineries can, however, tweak processes to extract more LPG by breaking down heavier hydrocarbons,” says Mallya. “Think of it like breaking a large Lego structure into smaller blocks. Longer carbon chains can be broken down to form LPG, but it is usually done only when necessary, like during the current crisis,” he adds.Despite the geopolitical uncertainties, the ministry of petroleum and natural gas, in a press statement, said that LPG supply situation in India remains stable. Officials say there have been no cases of stock-outs or “dry-outs” at distributorships.Earlier fears had triggered a spike in panic booking — daily bookings jumped from an average of 55.7 lakh cylinders to 88.8 lakh. But demand has since eased back to around 57 lakh, and online bookings have risen from 84% to 94%, reflecting a more orderly system.
