The LPG Queue Outside Our Building

For two weeks in March the gas cylinder van came late, or not at all. India stores emergency crude oil. It does not store emergency cooking gas.

Where our gas comes from

Most Indian kitchens run on LPG, and India imports roughly 60% of what it uses. Much of that comes from Qatar, the UAE and Saudi Arabia, and it travels through the Strait of Hormuz. When fighting began in the Gulf on February 28, ships carrying LPG slowed or stopped. Within days, distributors in Jaipur were rationing deliveries, and the waiting period for a refill in our building went from two days to almost two weeks.

On March 9, the government used the Essential Commodities Act to put household kitchens first in line, ahead of hotels, restaurants and industry. That kept most homes supplied, but it meant the dhaba near our school started cooking on wood and diesel stoves for a while.

Why there is no gas reserve

India has strategic petroleum reserves, underground caverns in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh that hold crude oil for emergencies. They were built after earlier oil shocks and hold enough for about ten days of imports. There is no equivalent store for LPG. Storing gas is more expensive than storing crude, because it must be kept under pressure or chilled, and for years supply was steady enough that nobody prioritised it.

That decision made sense on calm days. It looked very different when the strait closed. A reserve is like an emergency fund in a household budget. It feels wasteful most of the time, because the money sits there earning little. Its value only becomes obvious in the month you need it.

Who felt it most

Families like mine, with two cylinders, could manage by switching to an induction cooktop for a few days. Families with one cylinder and no backup had a much harder time. Small eateries and street vendors, who were pushed to the back of the queue, lost business or paid much higher prices for commercial cylinders. Shortages always land hardest on those with the least room to adjust.

The government is now talking about building LPG storage and diversifying suppliers towards the US and Africa. Those are sensible plans, though they will take years. For me, the lesson was that energy security is not an abstract defence topic. It is whether the van comes on Tuesday, and whether dinner gets cooked on time.