Crude oil futures traded higher on Thursday morning following doubts over the durability of the US-Iran ceasefire. This follows Israeli attacks on Lebanon on Wednesday.

At 9.21 am on Thursday, June Brent oil futures were at $96.66, up by 2.02 per cent, and May crude oil futures on WTI (West Texas Intermediate) were at $97.06, up by 2.91 per cent. April crude oil futures were trading at ₹9,059 on Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) during the initial hour of trading on Thursday against the previous close of ₹8,861, up by 2.23 per cent, and May futures were trading at ₹8,430 against the previous close of ₹8,250, up by 2.18 per cent.

In a post on X, Seyed Abbas Araghchi, Foreign Minister of Iran, said: “The Iran-US Ceasefire terms are clear and explicit: the US must choose—ceasefire or continued war via Israel. It cannot have both. The world sees the massacres in Lebanon. The ball is in the US court, and the world is watching whether it will act on its commitments.”

Meanwhile, reports said that the movement of oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz had been suspended following the Israeli attacks on Lebanon.

Petroleum status data, which was released by the US EIA (Energy Information Administration) for the week ending April 3, showed an increase in crude oil inventories in the US.

According to EIA, US commercial crude oil inventories increased by 3.1 million barrels for the week ending April 3. At 464.7 million barrels, US crude oil inventories were about 2 per cent above the five-year average for this time of year.

Total motor gasoline inventories decreased by 1.6 million barrels from last week, and distillate fuel inventories decreased by 3.1 million barrels last week.

Total products supplied in the US over the last four-week period averaged 20.8 million barrels per day. Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied averaged 8.7 million barrels per day, up by 1.5 per cent from the same period last year.

Distillate fuel product supplied averaged 4 million barrels per day over the past four weeks, up by 4.8 per cent from the same period last year. Jet fuel product supplied was down 6.4 per cent compared with the same four-week period last year.

Published on April 9, 2026

In a major de-escalation in West Asia, the United States and Iran have agreed to a two-week ceasefire.

US President Donald Trump announced the ceasefire on Tuesday after more than a month after intense hostilities broke out, leading to Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. The blockade caused significant disruption to global energy flows and led to sharp price increases for oil and gas.

Here is a breakdown of what has been agreed upon and what it means:

What has been agreed in the ceasefire deal?

The ceasefire deal includes a two-week pause in the attacks and bombings by the US (and by extension, Israel) and missile strikes by Iran in the ongoing West Asian conflict, including any retaliatory actions linked to the conflict.

However, Israel has stated that the ceasefire does not apply to its current offensive in Lebanon against the Hezbollah militants, despite Pakistan, which mediated the ceasefire, saying it does. This leads to some uncertainty about how this would pan out.

Additionally, Iran has provisionally agreed to allow freight transport in the Strait of Hormuz, albeit with military supervision which comes with a ‘fee’ which would be imposed in co-ordination with Oman.

The Pakistan-mediated ceasefire is said to proceed with further diplomatic talks in Islamabad on April 10, 2026 for which Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif extended invitations to delegates from both the warring nations.

What are Iran’s terms?

In addition to claiming victory, Iran has stated that the war would be concluded only if the US accepts its 10-point peace proposal, many of which were earlier rejected by the US and were the reasons for the escalation in the region. Some of Iran’s demands from the proposal includes,

What are the terms US is laying down?

US President Donald Trump has claimed a “total and complete victory” in the war.

He said the pause is subject to Iran agreeing to and honouring the “complete, immediate, and safe opening” of the Strait of Hormuz and called it a ‘double-sided ceasefire.’ He also added that US military objectives had already been met and that negotiations toward a broader, formal agreement were “very far along.”

He wrote “We received a 10-point proposal from Iran and believe it is a workable basis on which to negotiate.” Trump added that “almost all” major points of contention had been resolved. However, Trump has posted on TruthSocial that there would not be any uranium enrichment in Iran and the US would work with Iran to “dig up and remove” the deeply buried nuclear dust.

Will ships be allowed to pass through the Strait of Hormuz now?

Yes. Ships will be allowed to pass through the narrow Strait of Hormuz for which the US said would help to clear the massive backlog of shipping traffic that accumulated during the blockade.

Reports from the region suggest ships are already preparing to resume operations as the blockade has essentially ended, for the time being.

However, Iran has declared that traffic would be allowed with its military supervision along with a ‘fee’ which some reports claim could go up to $2 million per ship.

Iran has indicated that it would be split with Oman and would be used to fund reconstruction of damaged infrastructure.

What will be the impact on India?

The ceasefire comes as a massive relief to India as India imports over 60 per cent of its LPG and about 90 per cent of it traverse through the Strait of Hormuz.

Additionally, 30 per cent of India’s crude and 47 per cent of natural gas comes via the narrow strait. The month-long blockade put a significant strain in the domestic supply of LPG, forcing price hikes and securing supply from more diverse and expensive sources for now.

Roughly four LPG, three LNG and 10 crude oil tankers are waiting in west Persian Gulf awaiting transit through the strait. This will help open up the Strait allowing much needed stocks of LPG to reach India.

According to ICRA, “The announcement of ceasefire in West Asia provides much needed relief to the domestic oil and gas sector given the high reliance on West Asia for supplies. While crude and product flows may take months to normalize, some supplies would start for crude oil and petroleum products like naphtha, LPG, thereby alleviating the immediate shortage. Additionally, with the prospect of supplies recommencing from the Strait of Hormuz, crude oil and LPG prices have eased thereby reducing the pressure on marketing margins and LPG under recoveries of oil marketing companies. Apart from crude oil, natural gas supplies are urgently needed for sectors such as fertilisers, however supplies may take weeks to commence, apart from stranded cargoes.”

(with inputs from Rishi Ranjan Kala, Senior Assistant Editor, thehindubusinessline)

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Published on April 8, 2026

The Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas (MoPNG) has increased the allocation of natural gas to the fertiliser sector to 95 per cent of their average consumption in the last six months, effective Thursday.

Sujata Sharma, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas (MoPNG), said on Wednesday that based on available inventory and scheduled liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargo arrivals, the overall gas allocation to fertiliser plants is being further enhanced by 5 per cent to reach approximately 95 per cent of their six-month average consumption, effective April 9, 2026.

She was speaking at the daily inter-ministerial briefing on West Asia.

Prior to this, the MoPNG increased gas supply to fertiliser manufacturing units to 90 per cent, effective April 6, 2026.

For comparison, India’s fertiliser sector consumed 9,753 million standard cubic meters (MSCM) of natural gas in H1 FY26, which accounts for 28 per cent of the country’s cumulative usage.

It averages roughly at 1,625 MSCM per month. In 9M FY26, the sector consumed 15,046 MSCM (28.6 per cent of total consumption), averaging at around 1,712 MSCM.

India generally consumes around 196 million standard cubic meters per day of natural gas, of which the fertiliser sector’s requirement is around 52 MSCMD. One MSCM of gas produces around 1,600 tonnes of urea. In FY25, total fertiliser sales stood at 656 lakh tonnes.

Even as the supply of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) continues to be affected by the prevailing geopolitical situation in West Asia, no dry-outs have been reported at LPG distributorships, emphasised Sharma.

Since March 23, 2026, about 8.9 lakh 5-kg Free Trade LPG (FTL) cylinders have been sold. Besides, PSU oil marketing companies (OMCs) have organised around 1,600 awareness camps for 5 Kg cylinders during the last 5 days, wherein more than 14,000 units were also sold.

On the brighter side, over 1.1 lakh 5 Kg FTL cylinders were sold across the country on Tuesday against a daily average of 77,000 in February 2026.

The total commercial LPG allocation has been increased to about 70 per cent of pre-crisis levels, including 10 per cent reform-linked allocation, Sharma said.

About 93,085 tonnes of commercial LPG, which is equivalent to over 49 lakh 19-kg cylinders, has been sold since March 14, 2026. On Tuesday, 6646 tonnes LPG, equivalent to over 3.5 lakh 19 Kg cylinders was sold.

In natural gas, priority sectors continue to receive protected supplies, including 100 per cent supply to domestic PNG and CNG transport.

The government is also encouraging LPG users who are near PNG centres to migrate to piped gas from LPG. Since March 2026, about 3.87 lakh PNG connections have been gasified and about 4.21 lakh additional customers have registered for new connections. More than 17,100 PNG consumers have surrendered their LPG connections so far.

To encourage cleaner, more secure and self-reliant energy future, the Government of India has developed a model draft State compressed bio gas (CBG) Policy.

The model policy is intended to serve as a comprehensive flexible guiding framework to enable States to create their own investor-friendly and implementation-oriented ecosystem for CBG development. Those States which opt for this, will be prioritised for the next tranche of additional allocation of commercial LPG.

Published on April 8, 2026