New Delhi: Indian refiners have stepped up cooking gas (LPG) production to cushion potential supply losses as tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz slows to a near halt amid the widening West Asia conflict.
LPG carriers, crude tankers and LNG vessels stationed in the Persian Gulf are reluctant to transit the strait, disrupting a logistics artery that underpins energy supplies to India and much of the world. Oil and LNG prices are expected to surge when markets open on Monday after the effective blockage of the waterway, through which roughly a third of global seaborne crude and a fifth of LNG trade pass.
Petroleum and natural gas ministry officials and industry executives held multiple meetings over the past two days to assess contingency plans. Executives told ET they do not expect the disruption to last beyond a week.
“The world – and the US – cannot afford very high energy prices for long,” a senior industry executive said on condition of anonymity, expressing confidence that diplomatic and strategic pressure would build quickly. Another senior executive said Iran’s retaliation was predictable but unlikely to be sustained.>
