The Union government has asked oil marketing companies to prioritise LPG supply to domestic consumers. File.
| Photo Credit: Nagara Gopal
The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG) has asked oil refining companies to maximise production of liquified petroleum gas (LPG) and make it available to the three public sector entities — IndianOil, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum — to be sold to consumers for domestic consumption only.
Invoking the Essential Commodities Act, 1955, and the Petroleum Products (Maintenance of Production, Storage and Supply) order, 1999, an order issued on March 5, 2026, read: “All oil refining companies operating in India shall maximise and ensure that propane and butane streams produced, recovered, fractioned or otherwise available with them are utilised for production of LPG and make it available to the three public sector oil marketing companies.”
The order said all public sector OMCs shall ensure that LPG so produced is supplied/marketed solely to consumers of domestic LPG only.”
The order further seeks that oil refining companies “shall not divert, utilise, process, crack, convert or otherwise employ propane or butane streams for manufacture of petrochemical products or other such downstream derivatives.”
For context, the cooking fuel is formed of a combination of propane and butane.
Overall, the order seeks to re-prioritise allocation of propane and butane streams for utilisation in production of the cooking gas to safeguard the domestic consumers amidst a global fuel supply paradigm emanating from the ongoing conflict in West Asia.
Published – March 06, 2026 12:34 pm IST
