He Government of India has invoked emergency powers to require all refineries in the country to maximize production of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), in an attempt to protect the kitchen supply for 330 million homes, in the face of the crisis in the Persian Gulf.
“All oil refining companies operating in India will be required to maximize and ensure that the propane and butane streams produced (…) are used for LPG production,” reads an extract from the official directive published by the Indian Express newspaper.
This warns that these components cannot be “diverted, used, processed or converted” for other industrial derivatives.
The order, issued by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and reported this Saturday by the local press, prohibits public and private refineries from diverting their propane and butane flows for the manufacture of petrochemical products, relying on emergency powers under the Essential Commodities Act.
Liquefied gas is the most vulnerable segment for India
Under this decree, the plants must deliver all their production to the three state marketing companies, Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum y Hindustan Petroleum, for domestic distribution.
The measure responds to the fact that LPG is the most vulnerable segment of the Indian energy basket, since the country imports close to 60% of what it consumes and more than 80% of those volumes transit through the Strait of Hormuz and the routes of the Persian Gulf, where maritime traffic faces interruptions due to the war against Iran launched by the United States and Israel.
Government sources cited by the same newspaper indicated that the refineries have stocks of crude oil, gasoline and diesel to cover national demand for 25 days, to which is added an additional week of strategic oil reserves.
The largest importer in the country, Petronet LNG, whose supplier is QatarEnergy, issued this week a “force majeure” notice regarding possible supply interruptions in industrial sectors, to prioritize basic consumption and electricity generation.
