Cooking gas output increases 10% after government's nudge to refiners

NEW DELHI: Cooking gas production has increased by 10% since the govt issued directives to oil refiners to divert all components used in LPG production to fill the supply gap caused by the West Asia war, officials said on Tuesday.

Acknowledging complaints of a shortage of commercial LPG cylinders through social media from various sectors, especially hotels and restaurants, govt has formed a three-member committee to assess the situation, reports Atul Mathur. Officials maintained that gas agencies have enough LPG stock but admitted to "supply management issues" with commercial cylinders. The committee will have one executive director each from three state-run oil companies.

Govt priority must be domestic, not commercial, says official

An official said, “In a war situation, there is a choice between domestic and commercial consumers; the govt’s priority has to be domestic consumers.”

Dismissing the complaints of shortage as “rumours”, officials added nearly 60 lakh commercial and domestic cylinders were being distributed every day, as before, and no domestic LPG distributorship was running dry. They added that cooking gas cylinders were being delivered within the mandated delivery time of two-and-a-half days, though deliveries were normally made within a day in the pre-conflict period.

India has more than 33.3 crore domestic LPG consumers. Officials said cooking gas supply to households was being prioritised over commercial consumers to ensure there was no shortage.

Govt last week invoked provisions of the Essential Commodities Act and asked state-run refiners to ramp up LPG production and divert the additional output solely to the domestic sector. This led to confusion in several states, following which National Restaurant Association of India wrote to petroleum minister Hardeep Singh Puri expressing concern over disruptions in the availability of commercial cooking gas cylinders.

In a social media post, the three state-run oil marketing companies — IndianOil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum — said along with ensuring supplies to all domestic customers, it had been decided to supply LPG in accordance with requirement to essential non-domestic sectors such as hospitals and school. The OMCs also posted contact details of committee members on social media and said anyone needing commercial LPG could approach the panel.

“Since non-domestic LPG supply depends on the availability of imported products, the committee may not be able to address every grievance. Requests will be considered based on their merits and product availability, and appropriate decisions will be made accordingly,” the oil companies said in the post.