Oil, gas firms ordered to share import, export data with PPAC

India mandates oil and gas firms to share import and export data to mitigate consumer shortages amid rising global prices.

The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has ordered oil and gas companies to share details ​on exports, imports and inventories with a government agency, as India seeks to shield consumers from shortages amid ​rising global prices triggered by the U.S.-Israeli war on ⁠Iran. India has designated the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) to collect and analyse the information, according to a government order issued late on Wednesday (March 18, 2026).

The ‌companies must share information regardless of any “contract, agreement, commercial arrangement or confidentiality obligation,” the order said, adding ‌no entity can refuse to share details by claiming ‌it ⁠is “commercially sensitive or proprietary”.

India has been hit hard by ⁠the jump in crude prices and disruption in oil and gas supplies, but unlike China it has not moved to ban exports of refined fuel.

Any move ​to curtail fuel exports ‌by India will hit Reliance Industries, the operator of the world’s biggest refining complex, as other refiners have largely stopped exporting fuels.

All companies involved in the oil and gas supply chain including ‌oil producers, importers, refiners, fuel and gas retailers, liquefied ​natural gas importers, pipeline operators, and petrochemical plants were ordered to provide PPAC with data.

India, the world’s ⁠fourth-largest refiner and third-biggest oil importer and consumer, meets over 90% of its oil needs through purchases from overseas.