Indian public sector oil companies have signed a one-year deal to import Liquefied Petroleum Gas, LPG, from the United States. In a social media post, Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said the companies will import around 2.2 million tonnes per annum of LPG, which will be sourced from the US Gulf Coast. He said the government has been diversifying its LPG sourcing to provide secure, affordable supplies of LPG to the citizens. Mr Puri informed that a team of officials from Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited had visited the US and engaged in discussions with major US producers over the last few months.

The Minister underscored that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Indian PSU oil companies have been providing LPG at the lowest global prices to people in the country. Mr Puri emphasised that even as global prices soared by over 60 per cent last year, Prime Minister Modi ensured that the Ujjwala consumers continued to receive LPG cylinders at just 500 to 550 rupees, whereas the actual cost of the cylinder was over one thousand one hundred rupees. The Minister said the government of India incurred the cost of over 40 thousand crore rupees last year to ensure that the women of the country did not feel the burden of rising international LPG prices.