Mar 12, 2026 13:44 pm IST

Opinion | Amid Growing LPG Crisis, Why Your Piped Gas May Be The Real Winner

While LPG distribution falters amid the Hormuz crisis, PNG supplies to households in major cities continue largely uninterrupted. Will it last?

Deepanshu Mohan, Saksham Raj Deepanshu Mohan, Saksham Raj

Deepanshu Mohan, Saksham Raj

The contrast between LPG and PNG is a contrast between two energy delivery architectures: one, based on physical distribution cycles, and another on continuous infrastructure flow. India's latest cooking-fuel disruption has revealed a structural asymmetry in how energy reaches Indian households. As geopolitical tensions around the Strait of Hormuz disrupted LPG cargo movements in March 2026, the contrast between India's cylinder-based LPG ecosystem and the piped natural gas (PNG) network became stark.

The queues outside LPG agencies were not merely a temporary logistics problem. They exposed a deeper vulnerability in India's cooking fuel architecture, one rooted in import dependence, thin storage buffers and a complex distribution chain. By contrast, households connected to city gas distribution (CGD) pipelines experienced little disruption.

However, the current crisis does not mean PNG has replaced LPG. But it does explain why, under stress, PNG has demonstrated an infrastructure resilience that LPG struggles to match.

India's LPG Dependence

India is one of the world's largest LPG consumers. According to data from the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG), India consumed about 31.3 million tonnes of LPG in FY2024-25, while domestic production stood at roughly 12.8 million tonnes. Imports, therefore, met close to 60% of total demand. The scale of LPG dependence is equally visible at the household level. Data from the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) indicates that India has over 33.2 crore active LPG connections, including more than 10 crore beneficiaries under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY). This rapid expansion of LPG access since 2016 has been a major clean-cooking achievement. But it has also deepened the........

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