India's cooking fuel system is under significant strain as ongoing conflict in West Asia continues to disrupt energy shipments through the Strait of Hormuz — one of the world's most critical maritime corridors. The country imports roughly 60 per cent of its liquefied petroleum gas requirement, and nearly 90 per cent of those imports transit the Strait before reaching Indian shores.

With LPG tanker traffic severely disrupted, the government has moved swiftly on multiple fronts — tightening cylinder booking rules, curbing commercial allocations, and accelerating a broader policy shift away from cylinders and towards piped natural gas.

LPG Rationing Already Underway

The pressure on LPG supply has translated directly into tighter rules for consumers. The minimum gap between LPG bookings has been extended from 21 days to 25 days as a demand-management measure. Rural consumers under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana now face a 45-day refill cycle. Commercial LPG allocations have been slashed to a fraction of normal volumes.

The government has also expanded the Delivery Authentication Code system to close to 90 per cent of consumers to check diversion at the distributor level. Officials have urged the public not to panic, stating that measures are being taken to maintain supply balance — but the rationing signals the depth of the supply stress.

Why PNG Is Holding Up

For the roughly 1.47 crore households connected to piped natural gas networks, the crisis has been largely invisible. Gas continues to flow through buried polyethylene pipelines at consistent pressure, powering kitchen stoves without interruption. The structural reason for this resilience lies in how PNG reaches homes.

Natural gas is shipped as liquefied natural gas, chilled to minus 162 degrees Celsius, transported by sea to India's regasification terminals, warmed back into gas, and then fed into the national trunk pipeline grid. The pipeline system itself holds gas under continuous pressure. When a supply disruption hits, PNG consumers are buffered by gas already stored in distribution networks and at import terminals — a buffer that LPG's cylinder-and-delivery model simply does not have.

LPG, by contrast, is a blend of propane and butane compressed into liquid form and shipped in specialised pressurised tankers. When the Strait closes or slows, the supply chain has no real cushion between the tanker terminal and the kitchen.

Government Orders the Switch

The Centre has used the crisis to push a structural shift it has long sought. Under the newly notified Natural Gas and Petroleum Products Distribution Order, 2026, issued under the Essential Commodities Act, households in areas with existing PNG pipeline infrastructure have been given a 90-day window to switch from LPG to piped gas. Those who do not transition within this period may face discontinuation of their LPG supply.

Priority PNG connections are being mandated for residential schools, colleges, hostels, community kitchens, anganwadi kitchens, restaurants, hotels, and canteens. Domestic PNG and CNG transport sectors continue to receive 100 per cent supply allocation, while industrial and commercial users connected to the grid are being maintained at around 80 per cent of average consumption.

Critically, the government has also barred PNG-connected households from retaining LPG cylinders as backup — a move to prevent hoarding and ensure equitable cylinder distribution to those who have no pipeline alternative.

The Numbers Tell the Story

India has over 33 crore LPG connections — one of the largest such networks in the world. PNG connections, by comparison, stand at approximately 1.62 crore, concentrated almost entirely in urban areas. The gap is enormous, but the government estimates that around 60 lakh LPG consumers already live in areas where PNG pipelines exist, making them immediate candidates for migration.

City gas distribution companies — Indraprastha Gas Limited, Mahanagar Gas Limited, Gujarat Gas, GAIL Gas, and BPCL — have been directed to prioritise new PNG connections. Applications have picked up sharply in recent weeks, with urban adoption accelerating as the cylinder pinch bites.

PNG's Real Advantages

Beyond supply security, the case for PNG rests on several practical grounds. Gas flows continuously without the need to book, wait, or store a cylinder. Billing is metered, similar to electricity, so consumers pay only for what they use rather than for a full cylinder regardless of consumption.

On safety, natural gas is lighter than air and disperses upward if leaked, whereas LPG settles near the ground, raising fire risk in poorly ventilated kitchens. On cost, PNG typically works out 30 to 40 per cent cheaper for urban consumers once the multiple layers of bottling, transport, and dealer margin are stripped out of the supply chain.

The Limits of PNG's Resilience

However, PNG's insulation from the Hormuz crisis has never been absolute. India's natural gas import portfolio remains heavily dependent on Qatar, with long-term contracts concentrated at the Ras Laffan industrial complex. Attacks on Gulf gas infrastructure earlier in March threatened to extend the crisis from LPG to the piped gas network as well, exposing a structural irony: India's push to shift from one Gulf-dependent fuel to another may not represent the diversification it appears to be.

The government has acknowledged this, with the Ministry of Petroleum stating that efforts are underway to diversify sources — including LNG spot cargoes from the United States and a supply agreement with Norway's Equinor. Pipeline expansion targets 12.63 crore PNG connections by 2032, and LNG import capacity is planned to reach 66.7 million tonnes per year by 2030.

What Happens Next

The Hormuz crisis has compressed what was always a long-term energy transition into an immediate policy emergency. For urban households already in the coverage zone of a city gas distribution network, the choice is no longer optional — the switch to piped natural gas is now a government directive with a deadline.

For the hundreds of millions of rural consumers where pipelines do not yet reach, LPG cylinders remain the only practical option. Expanding PNG across India's dispersed geography will take years of infrastructure investment. Until then, the Strait of Hormuz will continue to hold a disproportionate say over what fuel burns in the average Indian kitchen — and at what cost.