Amid the global energy crisis and supply disruptions due to the ongoing US-Iran war in the Middle East, the Centre on Tuesday invoked the Essential Commodities Act (EC Act) to ensure uninterrupted supply of domestic cooking gas, redirecting the domestically produced natural gas to units that use it to produce LPG.
Before the move, CNG and piped cooking gas were the two priority sectors to receive the natural gas. Now, the LPG production units have also been added to the list of priority sectors to receive natural gas.
According to a Gazette notification, the supply of natural gas to certain sectors shall be treated as priority allocation and shall be maintained (subject to operational availability) to 100 per cent of their past six-month average gas consumption.
The sectors that will receive priority natural gas supply include – Domestic Piped Natural Gas supply; Compressed Natural Gas for transport; LPG production including LPG shrinkage requirements; Pipeline compressor fuel and other essential pipeline operational requirements.
The order further stated that the supply of natural gas to the fertilizer plants shall ensure seventy per cent of their past six-month average gas consumption. This too shall be subject to operational availability.
Tea industries, manufacturing and other industrial consumers shall also receive gas supply at eighty per cent of their past six-month average.
Meanwhile, the government has ordered oil refining companies to absorb the impact of LNG supply disruption to the extent feasible by reducing gas allocation to refineries to approximately sixty-five per cent of the past six-month consumption.
The ongoing conflict in the Middle East has triggered an energy crisis across the world, with India also facing a gas shortage. The production and supply of energy products, including LPG, have been disrupted due to the US-Iran war.
The crisis has led to a shortage of commercial LPG in the country, with the hotel body warning that hotels in several cities could be forced to shut 50 per cent of their eateries in the next 48 hours.