India Imposes Emergency Curbs on Commercial LPG After Hormuz Blockade

A sudden supply shock from the Persian Gulf recalls the 1973 Arab oil embargo, when West Asian geopolitics first weaponised energy flows and sent India scrambling for alternative fuels. Today’s crunch exposes how, despite two decades of Ujjwala-fuelled LPG adoption and repeated calls for ‘Atmanirbhar’ energy, the country still imports roughly 60 % of its cooking gas through a single maritime choke-point. By commandeering refinery output and rationing commercial cylinders, the government has revived command-and-control tools last used during the 1990–91 Gulf War rationing, signalling that market pricing alone cannot secure kitchens when tankers stop. Over a 100-year horizon the incident underlines a structural risk: India’s rapid urbanisation and clean-cooking push have outpaced domestic gas production and pipeline infrastructure. Unless diversified—biogas, electric induction, distributed renewables—every future Strait-of-Hormuz crisis will ripple straight into Indian tandoors, school canteens and industrial kilns, making energy security as much a culinary and employment issue as a strategic one.