In kitchens across India, the familiar blue flame of a gas stove symbolizes both modern convenience and successful policymaking. This week, that flame flickered.
War in the Middle East has threatened the supply of the liquefied petroleum gas that powers India’s homes, restaurants and industries.
The immediate anxiety is about cooking gas, for the billion-plus Indians who rely on it every day. Worries are growing over India’s dependence on an imported fuel, the delayed efforts to protect household supplies and a panic that may have worsened the disruption.
India is the world’s second-largest importer of liquefied petroleum gas, after China, burning about 31 million tons a year. Roughly 60 percent of that is imported, mostly via the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway that provides passage from the Persian Gulf to the open sea. The rest is made in India, mainly as a byproduct from crude-oil processing.
When missiles started flying between Iran and the Arab states on Feb. 28, in the aftermath of attacks by the United States and Israel, shipping through the strait came to a halt.
In the following days, rumors of a shortage of liquefied petroleum gas ricocheted across India’s cities, setting off hoarding and a brisk black market in the metal cylinders used to transport the gas. The government’s initial response consisted of the occasional reassuring social-media post by a cabinet minister.
Market analysts said there was an urgent need for clear, accountable communication.
On Wednesday, officials from the oil ministry insisted that household deliveries were largely normal, with an average delivery time of about two and a half days, and urged consumers not to order more than they needed.
Demand has doubled in some cities, creating the very shortages consumers feared. Customers in cities like Kolkata and Hyderabad waited hours to buy gas cylinders, some clutching their receipts and hoping for delivery trucks that never came.
Most of India’s liquefied petroleum gas is used in household cooking, but a vital portion goes to commercial use. To protect household kitchens, the authorities tightened the supply to restaurants, hotels and small businesses.
The scarcity of commercial cylinders has prompted warnings from restaurant associations that operations could slow or even halt.
Vidyarthi Bhavan, a famous eatery in Bengaluru that was established in 1943, reduced its seating capacity and quietly dropped fried items from its menu. The cashier said the kitchen had enough gas for perhaps two more days.
Elsewhere, restaurants have begun removing dishes that require a long flame, like slow-simmered gravies and dosas, as gas supplies grow uncertain. Some have switched to electric-induction cooktops or firewood. A dumpling chain, Wok & Fork, pleaded on social media: Take one commercial gas cylinder to your nearest outlet and receive 50 plates of momos in return.
The crisis has spread beyond restaurants. Brick and tile makers, ceramics and glass kilns, crematories, laundries and hospital kitchens are all struggling to keep operations running, while bakeries, street-food vendors and community kitchens face cuts.
On Sunday, eight days after the war began, the government ordered oil-refining companies to maximize production of liquefied petroleum gas. That meant diverting propane and butane — the main components of the gas — from the manufacture of other petrochemical products. India’s liquefied petroleum gas production has increased 28 percent since the government instituted the order, according to the petroleum ministry.
The government’s main mistake was to wait more than a week before telling the refineries to push all their crude and natural gas into liquefied petroleum gas production, said Duttatreya Das, an analyst at Ember, a global energy think tank and a former official with India’s national oil and gas company.
“There was a good week, after the war began, when things were unsure,” he said. “The government did not prioritize L.P.G. enough.”
Catching up will prove painful. The country, Mr. Das said, is now “staring at a shortage of 25 percent for the coming quarter.”
On Thursday, the minister for petroleum and natural gas, Hardeep Singh Puri, told Parliament that India’s sources of liquefied petroleum gas were being “actively diversified,” with cargoes being secured from the United States, Norway, Canada, Algeria and Russia, in addition to available Gulf sources.
The crisis reflects how deeply the gas has become embedded in India’s everyday life over the past decade.
The prime minister, Narendra Modi, introduced a popular program in 2016 that provided gas connections to poor households. It substantially expanded access to clean cooking fuel for families that would otherwise be burning wood, scrap or cow dung in their kitchens. The gas became nearly universal, spreading to more than 330 million households in 2025 from 145 million a decade earlier.
But the same transition has also increased the country’s dependence on imports, and its exposure to geopolitical shocks.
For now, the blue flame still burns in most Indian homes. As for restaurants, they are adapting.
“Customers used to ask waiters if idli, dosa, bajji was available,” said Paramesh G., manager of Indraprastha Veg, another restaurant in Bengaluru. “Now they ask if gas is available.”
Pragati K.B. is a reporter for The Times based in New Delhi, covering news from across India.
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