India’s Petronet LNG warns cargo delays from Qatar running through June

India’s leading gas importer Petronet LNG is flying blind on June deliveries from Qatar as peak summer power demand hits, Bloomberg reports, citing the company’s CEO AK Singh.

The state-backed importer — which relies on a long-term contract with Qatar for 7.5 mn tons per annum (mtpa), or about 9-10 cargoes monthly — hasn't seen a single shipment arrive since March. While the company expects contracted volumes to normalize once the regional geopolitical dust settles, it is fast-tracking plans to build out storage tanks across its facilities and is actively scouting for alternative suppliers to plug the gap.

Why it matters: The supply squeeze was triggered by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and retaliatory Iranian strikes on Qatar’s LNG infrastructure, prompting force majeure declarations for May deliveries. The bottleneck has effectively severed a critical energy artery for India, given that Qatari gas accounts for 45-50% of the country’s total LNG imports, powering everything from electricity grids to fertilizer manufacturing and heavy industry. While spot LNG prices have cooled slightly to around USD 16 per mmbtu, they remain prohibitively expensive for India’s price-sensitive buyers.

Domestic impact, workarounds: The supply crunch has forced India to divert gas away from industrial users and lean more on coal-fired generation. The government has deferred maintenance at thermal plants to keep the lights on as temperatures soar. India is gradually turning back to coal to prevent a summer power collapse in a temporary retreat from its gas-transition goals.

PLUS: India’s LPG fell sharply by 16% y-o-y in April to 2.2 mn tons, down from 2.6 mn tons last year, as war-driven supply disruptions limited availability for both household and commercial users.

Reliance cranks up LPG supply

Due to the supply crunch, India’s largest Reliance Industries is reworking refinery operations to ramp up liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) production as the Iran war disrupts India’s access to imported cooking fuel, Reuters reports. The company has redirected feedstock away from alkylates, a gasoline-blending component, and toward LPG production, with its alkylation unit now running at minimum levels.

Output shift: LPG production at Reliance’s facilities has risen more than threefold from pre-war levels to help cover part of the shortfall from Middle Eastern suppliers. “This has been done to bridge part of the gap in loss of LPG imports from Middle Eastern countries,” Reliance said in a statement to the newswire.

Why it matters: India shipped in some 22 mn tons of LPG in 2025, with the lion's share originating from the Middle East. With Gulf-linked maritime routes increasingly compromised, domestic refinery-level interventions are becoming a crucial buffer against absolute supply failure.