The waiting period for booking a Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) refill cut from 45 to 25 days, according to a letter to oil marketing companies from the Ministry Of Petroleum And Natural Gas, accessed on Monday by NDTV Profit.
Consumers can now place a new refill booking after completing just 25 days from their previous booking. The change is expected to benefit rural LPG users, who previously had to wait much longer between refills. The timeline for urban consumers remains 25 days.
The decision to reduce the minimum gap between successive LPG refill bookings came as fuel supplies improved.
This development comes after LPG supplies to India from the Gulf region nearly doubled in August on a month-on-month basis, as per Kpler and data from the Petroleum Planning & Analysis Cell.
The Gulf's share of India LPG imports rose to 29.7% in Aug from 16.4% in July. The UAE's (United Arab Emirates') LPG shipments jumped from 94.9% to 198,860 tonnes. India's total LPG imports rose 14.5% on a month-on-month basis.
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Kuwait's LPG supplies rose to 114,580 tonnes from 44,230 tonnes while Qatar's LPG shipments increased to 65,400 tonnes from 19,320 tonnes. The Gulf regained ground in contrast to US LPG shipments' decline. The US's LPG shipments to India fell 25.8% month-on-month. However, the US retains over 50% share of India's LPG imports at 724,150 tonnes.
LPG consumption hit its six-month high in August. rising 3.2% month-on-month to 24.2 MT. The data showed that consumption was still weaker compared to last year. The LPG demand dipped 16% YoY in August. Before the West Asia crisis, nearly 90% of India's imported LPG came from the Gulf region.
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