Government has said that the supply of petrol, diesel, LPG and PNG remains normal across the country. Addressing the Inter-Ministerial Briefing on recent developments in West Asia in New Delhi today, Joint Secretary for the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Sujata Sharma, said that no dry-outs have been reported at any LPG distributorships. She highlighted that all petrol pumps are operating normally with adequate availability of petrol and diesel, and no shortages have been reported.
Ms Sharma said that the delivery of LPG cylinders is also continuing smoothly and online LPG bookings have increased to about 96%. She said the total commercial LPG allocation has been increased to about 70% of pre-crisis levels. She highlighted that to boost the sale of five kg cylinders, the government has issued a new order to double their sales. In February, the average daily sale of five kg cylinders stood at around 77,000 cylinders, which has increased to around 1 lakh cylinders in a day now. She added that since 23 March, about 780,000 5-kg Free Trade LPG cylinders have been sold.
Additional Secretary, Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, Mukesh Mangal said that all Indian seafarers in the West Asia region are safe and no incident involving Indian-flagged vessels has been reported in the past 24 hours. He said, at present, 16 Indian-flagged vessels with 433 Indian seafarers remain in the western Persian Gulf region. Mr Mangal said the Directorate General of Shipping continues close monitoring in coordination with shipowners, RPSL agencies and Indian Missions.
