Written by: Sukalp Sharma 5 min readNew DelhiUpdated: May 30, 2026 03:27 AM IST Indian crew member on ship headed to Yemen killed, Indian crew member on ship killed in Hormuz crossfire, Indian killed in Hormuz crossfire, US-Israel war on Iran, west asia war, Iran war, Israel-US-Iran war, Iran conflict, Strait of Hormuz, Strait of Hormuz shut, west asia conflict, iran and israel war, iran and israel, us israel war, war in iran, iran us, us israel iran, us israel, us iran war, iran us war, us war, israel news, israel iran war news, war news, israel iran news, israel war news, iran war news, war on iran, iran israel war today, war in iran and israel, iran attack israel, israel iran, israel us attack iran, attack on iran, iran attack on us, us and iran, us attack in iran, did iran attack us, us to attack iran, us and israel, us and israel attack iran, us attack iran today, us iran news, iran us news, us news, iran attack news, iran attack todayDaily shipping traffic through the critical Strait of Hormuz has crashed from 140 vessels to fewer than 10 following the outbreak of the US-Iran war on February 28. (Representational) Make us preferred source on Google Print The liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) supply squeeze due to the West Asia war has underscored the requirement to have more LPG storage in the country, and the government has asked public sector oil marketing companies (OMCs)—Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum, Hindustan Petroleum—to work on a plan to have at LPG reserves to meet at least 30 days of demand in addition to their regular commercial stocks. “We are working on the strategic reserves. Oil marketing companies have been asked to work out (a plan) to have LPG reserves for a minimum of 30 days with them, and they are working on it,” Petroleum Ministry Joint Secretary Sujata Sharma said Friday. Speaking to reporters, Sharma said that the proposal is still at an early stage and declined to comment on a timeline for these reserves to be created. Whether this additional storage will be in underground caverns—as in the case of strategic crude oil reserves—or in overground tankage will also be worked out by the OMCs depending on the cost considerations and feasibility. The move to expand storage capacity for LPG, which is used as a cooking fuel by over 33 crore Indian households, comes as LPG has been the most impacted energy segment due to the West Asia war and the consequent closure of the Strait of Hormuz. While India has strategic petroleum reserves for crude oil, it has none for LPG and liquefied natural gas (LNG). A bulk of the available stocks for crude oil also are commercial stocks with refiners. India depends on imports to meet about 60% of its LPG consumption, and a whopping 90% of those imports came via the Strait of Hormuz. This means that the Strait of Hormuz effectively saw the movement of around 54% of India’s LPG consumption. In the case of LNG imports, on which India depends to meet half of its natural gas requirement, the Strait accounted for 55-60% of the supplies. As for crude oil, about 40% came through the shipping corridor. The disruption has forced India to ration LPG supplies to industrial and commercial consumers in a bid to prioritise crores of households that depend on the fuel to run their kitchens. As a demand management tool, the minimum gap between LPG refill bookings by households has also been increased. India’s LPG consumption stood at about 90,000 tonnes a day before the war. But with the disruption in flows through the Strait of Hormuz and seasonal dip in demand, LPG consumption has declined to about 72,000 tonnes a day, according to Petroleum Ministry estimates.