Five tankers filled with roughly 2.30 lakh tonnes of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) are idling in the Persian Gulf west of the Strait of Hormuz (SoH) awaiting a go-ahead from Iran to transit the world’s most critical energy choke point.
Speaking during the daily briefing on West Asia on Tuesday, Rakesh Kumar Sinha, Special Secretary at the Shipping Ministry, said that two Indian LPG vessels—Pine Gas and Jag Vasant—crossed the Strait of Hormuz last night and are heading towards India carrying LPG cargo.
Pine Gas (about 45,000 tonnes LPG) is bound for New Mangalore with ETA on March 27th morning, while Jag Vasant (about 47,612.59 tonnes LPG) is bound for Kandla with ETA on March 26th morning.
Of the remaining 20 vessels in the west of the SoH, there are five LPG laden tankers with around 3.20 lakh tonnes, which await safe passage through the SoH. One another LPG vessel is empty and which will also be loaded in 3-4 days, Sinha added.
Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG) Joint Secretary Sujata Sharma said that LPG supply continues to be monitored in view of the prevailing geopolitical situation.
“No dry-outs have been reported at distributorships. Panic bookings showed a marginal increase yesterday (Monday), while delivery of domestic LPG cylinders continues as normal,” she added.
Twenty-four States and UTs have issued orders to allocate the Non-domestic LPG in line with the guidelines issued by the Government of India. For the rest of the States/UTs, PSU Oil Marketing companies are releasing Commercial LPG cylinders.
A total of around 18,784 tonnes of LPG has been uplifted since March 14, 2026 by commercial entities in the States/UTs.
Enforcement actions continue across States to curb hoarding and black marketing, with about 3,400 raids conducted and around 1,000 cylinders seized in the past 24 hours. Major actions were reported in Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Telangana.
The PSU Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) conducted more than 1,500 surprise inspections at retail outlets and LPG distributorships yesterday. So far, about 642 FIRs have been registered and around 155 people arrested.
Sharma assured that the country does not have any shortage of petrol and diesel and all retail outlets are operating normally across the country.
On supply of natural gas, Sharma said that priority sectors continue to receive protected supplies, including 100 per cent supply to domestic PNG and CNG transport, while supplies to industrial and commercial consumers connected to the grid are being maintained at around 80 per cent of their average consumption.
Published on March 24, 2026
