New Delhi [India], March 10 (HBTV): As the West Asia conflict continues to put pressure on fuel supplies, the Union Government on Tuesday invoked the Essential Commodities Act (EC Act) to ensure uninterrupted supply of domestic cooking gas, directing refineries and petrochemical units to maximise production of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and divert key hydrocarbon streams to the LPG pool.
According to the order, the supply of natural gas to certain sectors will be treated as priority allocation and maintained, subject to operational availability, at 100 per cent of their average gas consumption over the past six months. These sectors include domestic piped natural gas supply, compressed natural gas for transport, LPG production including LPG shrinkage requirements, and pipeline compressor fuel and other essential pipeline operational requirements.
The order further states that supply of natural gas to fertiliser plants will be maintained at 70 per cent of their past six-month average gas consumption, subject to operational availability. Gas marketing entities have also been directed to ensure that gas supply to tea industries, manufacturing and other industrial consumers connected to the national gas grid is maintained at 80 per cent of their past six-month average gas consumption, subject to operational availability.
All City Gas Distribution entities have been asked to ensure that industrial and commercial consumers supplied through their networks receive 80 per cent of their past six-month average gas consumption, subject to operational availability.
Oil refining companies have been ordered to absorb the impact of LNG supply disruptions, to the extent feasible, by reducing gas allocation to refineries to approximately 65 per cent of their past six-month gas consumption, subject to operational feasibility.
Every producer, importer, transporter, marketer or distributor of natural gas, including LNG and regasified LNG, has been asked to furnish information relating to production, imports, stocks, allocation, supply and consumption to the Central Government or to any officer authorised by it.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas issued orders to oil refineries to increase LPG production and directed that such additional output be channelled specifically for domestic use.
The government has prioritised domestic LPG supply to households to ensure energy security for citizens amid uncertainty in the global oil and energy market due to the West Asia crisis.
'In light of current geopolitical disruptions to fuel supply and constraints on supply of LPG, the Ministry has issued orders to oil refineries for higher LPG production and using such extra production for domestic LPG use,' the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas said in a post on X.
To manage the current supply environment, the ministry also introduced a 25-day inter-booking period for consumers to avoid hoarding and prevent black marketing.
(ANI)