LPG cylinder for Rs 1,500 as Iran war triggers panic buying. Is gas really scarce?
India Today
The Iran war has seen Tehran choking the Strait of Hormuz, one of the busiest routes for oil and gas supplies. This has resulted in panic buying of LPG cylinders in parts of India. What do officials and experts say? Is there an LPG shortage in India?
When demand spikes even briefly, and supply chains tighten, markets do react with visible stress. Right now, amid the war in Iran, that stress is showing up outside LPG agencies in several towns and cities, including in the National Capital Region (NCR). Long queues of consumers clutching empty LPG cylinders were on Monday seen outside a Bharat Gas agency in Noida's Sector 22. A viral video from Birdpur village in Uttar Pradesh's Sitapur district showed at least hundreds of people sitting on their empty LPG cylinders lined up outside a gas agency. The clip went viral on Saturday, March 7.
While queues were reported in some cities, towns and villages for LPG cylinders, several people that India Today Digital spoke to said there was no genuine shortage of LPG supplies on the ground. The central government has also denied claims of any LPG crisis.
The sense of crisis could be the doing of some suppliers to cash in on the panic related to reports of supply disruptions because of the Iran war. A person from a small town in Uttar Pradesh, claimed that she was forced to buy a domestic LPG cylinder on the black market for Rs 1,500.
"It's Ramzan, gas is essential," the homemaker, who didn't want her name to be shared, from UP's Pratapgarh district told India Today Digital.
A cylinder delivery partner of Indane Gas, who caters to consumers in South Delhi, told India Today Digital that he has noticed panic buying "over the past four to five days". He confirmed there were no LPG supply constraints.
The US and Israel's war on Iran, today in its 10th day, has triggered fears of a supply disruption. The government last week hiked LPG cylinder prices and tightened reordering norms. India meets nearly two-thirds of its LPG demand through imports, most of which come from Gulf countries such as the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. They are shipped through the strategic choke point, the Strait of Hormuz.
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The Iran war has seen Tehran choking the Strait of Hormuz, one of the busiest routes for oil and gas supplies. This has resulted in panic buying of LPG cylinders in parts of India. What do officials and experts say? Is there an LPG shortage in India?
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