Parliamentary panel to review domestic output of petroleum products on 15 May

New Delhi: India's parliamentary panel on petroleum and natural gas is set to review the domestic production of fuels on 15 May, as the country faces energy supply constraints amid the West Asia war-triggered disruptions.

Officials from the petroleum ministry and public sector oil and gas firms, along with officials from the department of fertilizers have been summoned for the review meeting, a notice from the committee said.

The review comes amid strained domestic availability of petroleum products, especially cooking gas. The government maintains that the availability petrol and diesel is comfortable, but liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) remains affected due to the crisis that has led to the blockage of West Asia's crucial energy shipment pathway, the Strait of Hormuz.

"No dry-outs have been reported at LPG distributorships," said a statement from the petroleum and natural gas ministry on Wednesday, while adding that refineries are operating at high capacity with adequate crude oil inventories. Sufficient stocks of petrol and diesel are being maintained, it added.

"Citizens are advised to avoid panic purchase of petrol, diesel and LPG as the government is making all efforts to ensure availability of petrol, diesel and LPG," the ministry said.

Concern over low stocks and anticipation of an increase in prices of petrol and diesel has led to instances of panic buying in several parts of the country.

India is a major producer of petrol and diesel, and has the fourth largest refining capacity in the world. It is, however, dependent on imports for nearly 90% of its crude oil requirement, 60% for LPG and about 55% for LNG.

While India has significantly diversified its sourcing of crude oil over the past few years, the shortage remains severe in LPG since it imports about 90% of its cooking gas requirement from West Asia, and these supplies have been choked due to the Strait of Hormuz blockade for over two months.

The government has put curbs to manage the LPG crunch. There is a cap in place for bookings—urban households can book a cylinder only after 25 days of the previous booking, while the gap for rural households is 45 days.

Fertilizer stock taking

The parliamentary panel will also review availability of fertilizers and its required inputs amid persisting concerns over high prices and availability of fertilizers and natural gas for the production of fertilizers during the upcoming kharif crop season.

For the kharif season starting June, the department of agriculture and farmers welfare has pegged India's fertilizer requirement at 39.05 million tonnes, while stocks as on 4 May were at around 19.57 million tonnes, or about 50% of the requirement. This availability is higher than the typical level of about 33%, fertilizer department data shows.

According to officials at the ministry of chemicals and fertilizers, the supply position is strong in the states. For 1-3 May, availability was substantially higher than the requirement: urea at 6.22 million tonne as against a requirement of 266,000 tonnes and diammonium phosphate (DAP) at 2.03 million tonnes against the need for 85,000 tonnes, the data shows.

About 8.4 million tonnes of fertilizers have been added to the country's stocks since the West Asia crisis. In April 2026, domestic urea production touched around 2.1 million tonnes, slightly lower than 2.2 million a year earlier. Through global urea tenders, India has also secured a total of about 3.8 million tonnes since the start of the US-Iran war end February, the government said.