India’s LPG Imports in March-May 2026: West Asia’s loss is Washington’s gain

India imported roughly 1.49 mt LPG from the US in the quarter ending May 31, 2026, a whopping growth of 1,556 per cent y-o-y from 0.09 mt in the year-ago period

The first 90 days of the West Asian conflict has significantly altered the trade dynamics of India’s liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) imports, with the US eating into the share of India’s top four traditional suppliers in West Asia — the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

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The conflict on February 28 led to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz (SoH), which accounts for around half of India’s domestic LPG consumption. Closure of the world’s most critical energy choke point — accounting for one-third of global LPG supplies — forced New Delhi to turn to the United States to fill the gap in imports left by its four top supplies in West Asia. For comparison, LPG cargoes via SoH fell from 1.5 million barrels per day (mb/d) on average in 2025 to 0.3 mb/d.

As per the global real time data and analytics provider Kpler, India imported around 3.37 million tonnes (mt) of LPG in March to May 2026, a decline of almost 40 per cent on an annual basis.

‘Sharp decline’

Sumit Ritolia, Kpler’s Kpler’s Lead Research Analyst for Refining & Modeling, told businessline: “LPG was more visibly disrupted. Imports fell sharply from above 2 million tonnes per month in January-February 2026 to around 1-1.2 million tonnes a month in March-May, with lower West Asian availability partly offset by higher US inflows.”

India imported roughly 1.49 mt LPG from the US in the quarter ending May 31, 2026, a whopping growth of 1,556 per cent y-o-y from 0.09 mt in the year-ago period.

Washington, which was India’s fifth largest LPG supplier till January, jumped a spot to become the fourth largest, replacing Kuwait a month later.

However, the fresh conflict in West Asia (from February 28) propelled the North American country to become the top supplier to the world’s second largest LPG consumer for three consecutive months beginning March 2026. Washington’s share in India’s total LPG imports surged to more than 44 per cent in March-May 2026 from less than 3 per cent a year-ago.

Kpler data also show that the share of the four West Asian countries accounted for 93 per cent of the total LPG imports of around 5.57 million tonnes (mt) in March-May 2025. This has plummeted to 38 per cent during the same period this calendar year.

Another interesting development is the rise of Iran as India’s top supplier for the key cooking fuel. India’s LPG imports from the Persian Gulf nation surged by 144 per cent y-o-y to 0.22 mt in March-May 2026. Its share in India’s total imports rose from just 1.6 per cent in March-May 2025 to 6.5 per cent a year later.

Recently, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said that blockade of SoH has adversely impacted 430,000 barrels per day (kb/d) of LPG cargoes to India during March-April 2026.

Besides, OPEC in its latest monthly oil market report also pointed out that India’s refined product imports declined sharply in March 2026, averaging 765,000 b/d and representing the lowest import volume since December 2018.

Published on June 4, 2026