Himalaya Harbinger, Uttarakhand Bureau
For the first time in several years, India has reportedly purchased liquified petroleum gas (LPG) from Iran after the Donald Trump administration granted a 30-day sanctions waiver to keep oil and gas prices in check.
India had stopped energy imports from Iran in 2019 amid Western sanctions. Data from LSEG
indicated that the tanker carrying the cargo was originally headed for China.
India has faced significant disruption to energy supplies routed through the Strait of Hormuz due to the ongoing US-Israeli conflict with Iran
Iran LPG headed to India
The sanctioned vessel Aurora, transporting
Iranian LPG, is expected to arrive today at the west coast port of Mangalore, sources told Reuters.
Sources said the cargo was procured through a trader, with payment to be made in rupees. They added that India is also considering additional purchases of Iranian LPG cargoes
The LPG shipment will be distributed among
three state-run fuel retailers: Indian Oil
Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited.
However, an official said he was not aware of any purchases of Iranian cargoes.
There are) no loaded cargoes from Iran, we have not heard of that,” Rajesh Kumar Sinha, Special Secretary in the federal shipping
ministry, said at a press conference on Wednesday.
India, the world’s second-largest importer of LPG, is grappling with its most severe gas supply crunch in decades, prompting the government to cut allocations to industries in order to safeguard household cooking fuel needs.
The country consumed 33.15 million metric tonnes of LPG last year, with imports meeting roughly 60% of the demand.
A significant majority of these imports originated from the Middle East.
India is also working to clear LPG cargoesstranded in the Strait of Hormuz, with four tankers Jag Vasant
Shivalik, Nanda Devi, Pine Gas and already moved. In addition, the country has begun loading LPG onto empty vessels that had been stuck in the Persian Gulf
