Drawing critical lessons from severe energy supply disruptions caused by the ongoing conflict in West Asia, the Central Government has officially instructed state-run Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) to establish a dedicated 30-day strategic reserve of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG). According to Petroleum Ministry Joint Secretary Sujata Sharma, this freshly mandated buffer will operate entirely over and above the existing 45-day operational rolling stock that oil retailers conventionally maintain to meet standard commercial and domestic cylinder demands. While India has actively worked to insulate its energy security by scaling up domestic LPG production to record highs and diversifying import channels through partnerships with the United States, Norway, Canada, and Algeria, creating an insulated strategic reserve has become an absolute economic imperative. This emergency stock plan is designed to insulate the country from sudden shipping route hazards, particularly surrounding volatile choke points like the Strait of Hormuz.
Currently, India possesses a modest 1.4 lakh tonnes of specialized LPG storage capacity housed in two underground caverns located at Mangaluru and Visakhapatnam. However, with national daily LPG consumption consistently hovering around 72,000 tonnes—even after factored seasonal dips and demand management protocols—the current storage infrastructure leaves the country vulnerable to prolonged shipping blockades. Officials emphasized that creating this comprehensive 30-day gas reserve forms a vital piece of the nation’s medium- to long-term strategy to safeguard essential fuel supplies and prevent domestic distributors from running dry during geopolitical shocks. Alongside parallel plans to expand national crude oil stockpiles, this policy aims to fully insulate Indian households from international market volatility, ensuring that retail cooking gas availability remains completely uninterrupted regardless of global supply chain crises.