India Faces Worst LPG Crisis in Its History: 330 Million Households Threatened

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has cut off roughly 90% of India's liquefied petroleum gas imports, triggering one of the most severe energy crises the country has faced. The stakes are not only industrial: close to 330 million households rely on LPG for daily cooking, turning a supply disruption into an immediate domestic concern for a vast share of the population.

In response to the emergency, authorities have invoked exceptional measures to manage essential commodities and moved to rapidly increase domestic production. At the same time, the crisis is accelerating the search for longer-term alternatives: new pipelines, supplier diversification, and the expansion of piped gas are all back on the table.

The shock has exposed a long-standing, structural vulnerability. Dependence on the Hormuz maritime passage has persisted across successive governments, and the episode has reopened the debate over how prepared the country really was.

Responsibility, however, remains contested. Some actors attribute the crisis to the strait's closure, while others see it primarily as the consequence of a wider regional conflict. Proposed remedies diverge as well: some favor alternative overland infrastructure, others bet on open markets and gas exports. Beyond these competing readings, one shared certainty endures: for hundreds of millions of people, the concrete question remains the next meal.