New Delhi: The government, for the first time, has set maximum cooking gas LPG production targets for individual public- and private-sector refineries and upstream companies as it seeks to create a domestic supply buffer after the West Asia conflict highlighted India’s vulnerability to disruptions in imported cooking gas.
In an order issued on August 13, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry specified maximum LPG production levels for 21 refineries and upstream companies. Their combined production capacity has been set at 63,810 tonnes per day, more than twice India’s domestic LPG output in the financial year ended March 31, 2026, and equivalent to around 70 per cent of the country’s daily consumption.
The production limits will kick in whenever there is a supply constraint.
Reliance gets largest quota
Eighteen refineries operated by public-sector oil companies have been assigned a combined LPG production target of 31,470 tonnes per day. Reliance Industries has the highest specified production potential at 18,000 tonnes per day, followed by BPCL’s Kochi refinery at 4,800 tonnes and Nayara Energy at 4,480 tonnes. Together, the three account for 27,280 tonnes per day of the total potential.
In the private sector, Reliance Industries’ 33 million tonnes-a-year domestic tariff area (DTA) refinery at Jamnagar, Gujarat, whose products are sold in the domestic market, has been assigned a production target of 18,000 tonnes per day. No target has been specified for Reliance’s separate 35.2 million tonnes-a-year export-oriented refinery at the same complex.
Nayara Energy, backed by Russia’s Rosneft, has been asked to produce 4,480 tonnes of LPG per day from its 20-million-tonne-a-year refinery at Vadinar, according to the order.
Upstream gas producers and processors such as ONGC and GAIL, which produce LPG from natural gas, have collectively been assigned a target of 6,460 tonnes per day.
“It is hereby ordered that all public sector, joint venture and private sector oil refining companies, and upstream oil companies shall develop, augment and at all times maintain adequate infrastructure for storage, evacuation and transport of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) either by itself or through other entities viz railways or road tankers adequate for the specified quantities,” the order said.
The framework also requires companies to implement technically and economically viable measures to maximise LPG output beyond their existing minimum producible quantities. These include technologies such as naphtha-to-LPG conversion and upgrades to gasoline-based fluid catalytic cracking units into petro-fluid catalytic cracking units.
India consumed 33.2 million tonnes of LPG in 2025-26 fiscal year
India consumed 33.2 million tonnes of LPG in the 2025-26 fiscal year (about 91,000 tonnes per day). Of this, 13.1 million tonnes a year was produced locally (about 35,900 tonnes a day) while the remaining 21.3 million tonnes per annum (about 58,400 tonnes a day) was imported.
This high import dependence of over 64 per cent left the country exposed when the start of the Iran war effectively shut the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow sealane through which India got 90 per cent of its imports from nations like Saudi Arabia.
With supplies impacted, the government in March ordered refineries to divert streams used for petrochemicals production to maximise LPG output. It also initially stopped sales to industrial and commercial users and thereafter gradually scaled it up. For domestic households, periodicity of booking a refill was increased, and they were encouraged to shift to piped natural gas, whose supplies were not so severely impacted due to the war.
Govt to review production targets every six months
The government has stated that it will review production targets every six months. Additional capacity generated by new refineries, new oil and gas fields, and technological upgrades will be factored in. In this way, the government has attempted to transform the temporary measures taken during the West Asia crisis into a permanent supply-security mechanism, ensuring that domestic consumers do not face shortages, rationing, or refill restrictions in the event of future disruptions in foreign LPG supplies.
