PM Modi calls for cushioning West Asia crisis impact amid supply fears

Modi's message to ministers to ensure that any inconvenience to citizens is minimised, and to gear up for potential disruptions, was conveyed at the Union Cabinet meeting

Amid concerns over India’s energy security and a looming shortage of cooking gas and fertilisers due to the conflict in West Asia, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday asked ministries to work in a collective and coordinated manner with respective stakeholders to cushion the impact on citizens, even as the Centre issued a fresh diktat to regulate natural gas supplies.  Modi’s message for ministers to ensure that any inconvenience to citizens is minimised, and to gear up for potential disruptions, was conveyed at the Union Cabinet meeting.

 

Meanwhile, a panel of oil company executives has been tasked with reviewing complaints of shortage of commercial LPG cylinders across cities and making fuel available to meet the genuine needs of hotels and restaurants. After prioritising LPG, CNG, and piped cooking gas uses of natural gas, the oil ministry on Tuesday also included the fertiliser sector in the list in a fresh order.

 

 

In Parliament, as the Lok Sabha debated the Opposition’s notice for the removal of the Speaker, the PM also held meetings with Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. During the Cabinet meeting, the PM praised the efforts of the ministries to meet the challenges the crisis has thrown up. Indian missions and posts in West Asia continued to help stranded Indian nationals to return home.

 

Meanwhile, some states, such as Madhya Pradesh, have also set up committees to oversee regular supplies of cooking gas and fertilisers and coordinate with the Centre. 

 

With the ongoing conflict in West Asia disrupting liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipments through the Strait of Hormuz and key suppliers invoking the force majeure clause, the Centre issued a directive for diverting scarce natural gas to the economy’s priority sectors, invoking The Essential Commodities Act, 1955.

 

According to The Natural Gas (Supply Regulation) Order, 2026, supply to four sectors will receive top priority allocation, maintained at 100 percent of their average gas consumption over the past six months — domestic Piped Natural Gas (PNG), Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) for transport, Liquefied Petroleum gas (LPG) production including LPG shrinkage requirements, and pipeline compressor fuel and other essential pipeline operational requirements.

 

The second priority has been accorded to the supply of natural gas for fertiliser plants who will be ensured 70 percent of their past six months' average gas consumption, subject to operational availability.

 

The priority status is to ensure that farmers receive fertilizers on time, allowing agricultural activities to continue smoothly despite the global gas crisis, the government said, adding that the needs of farmers is one of its highest priorities, and that political instability in West Asia does not adversely impact the upcoming Kharif sowing season in India.

 

A high-level meeting was held in the Department of Fertilisers on Tuesday, attended by senior oil ministry officials, top fertiliser firms’ executives furnished a detailed account of their preparations and challenges. The government instructed all companies that every possible effort be made to keep their plants running continuously.

 

The Department of Fertilisers said India's total fertiliser reserve has reached 180.12 lakh tonne ahead of Kharif - a 36.6 per cent increase over 131.79 lakh tonne recorded on the same date last year. The surge has been driven largely by unprecedented accumulation of DAP (25.17 lakh tonne) and NPK/NPKS (56.30 lakh tonne).

 

As of March 10, stocks stand at: Urea - 61.51 lakh tonne; DAP - 25.17 lakh tonne; NPK - 56.30 lakh tonne; Potash - 12.90 lakh tonne; SSP - 24.24 lakh tonne. The government has imported 98 lakh tonne of urea as of February 2026, with an additional 17 lakh tonne in the pipeline over the next three months.

 

The department said an aggressive advance-stocking strategy during low-consumption periods has resulted in the large buffer, adding that despite disruptions in maritime transport, domestic supply to farmers will remain unaffected.

 

The third priority sectors for natural gas allocation includes tea industries, manufacturing and other industrial consumers supplied through the national gas grid who will be maintained at 80 percent of their past six-month average gas consumption. As the fourth order of priority, industrial and commercial consumers of City Gas Distribution (CGD) entities will receive 80 per cent of their past six month average gas consumption.

 

“The gas required to meet the priorities shall be through full or partial curtailment of gas supplied in the following order of priority: petrochemical facilities not limited to ONGC Petrol additions Limited; GAIL Pata Petrochemical Complex; Reliance O2C and other High-Pressure High Temperature gas consumers; and power plants as required,” the order stated.

 

The order also states that oil refining companies will absorb the impact of LNG supply disruption to the extent feasible by reducing gas allocation to refineries to approximately 65 per cent of the past six month gas consumption, subject to operational feasibility. GAIL India will manage the supplies of natural gas to implement the directions of the priority allocation, in coordination with Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC), for which it will submit the invoice price of every diverted volume of natural gas.

 

“A pooled price shall be notified by the PPAC for the natural gas diverted from non-priority sectors to priority sectors as specified. The entities from priority sector to whom the pooled gas is supplied shall give an undertaking that the pooled price is acceptable to them and they shall not make the force majeure mitigation supply subject to any litigation as this may be at variance with their existing contracts,” the order stated.

 

The order also directed all entities involved in production, import, marketing, transportation and supply of natural gas, to comply with the directions, including revision of supply schedules, diversion of supplies and sector-wise allocation of natural gas, as directed by the central government in coordination with GAIL.

 

These firms include include ONGC, RIL, OIL, Vedanta and other domestic natural gas producers, GAIL and other gas marketing entities, LNG terminal operators, natural gas pipeline operators, and city gas distribution entities.

 

Meanwhile, In Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh CM Mohan Yadav reviewed the civil supply arrangements, asserted that there was no need to panic and also set up a three member committee of ministers and officials to monitor the supply system and take all necessary steps to maintain uninterrupted supplies of food items, cooking gas and fertilizers. Other state governments have also taken similar measures.

 

In Bhubaneswar, after a meeting with OMCs, Odisha Chief Secretary Anu Garg said the state had adequate supplies of LPG. However, reports of shortages continued to come in from several states, including Karnataka with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Lok Sabha member Tejasvi Surya writing to the Oil Minister to take steps to mitigate the difficulties that restaurants and hotels are facing.

 

A PTI report from Dhaka stated that Bangladesh has begun receiving additional supplies of diesel from India, with an initial supply of 5,000 tonnes expected by Wednesday. However, officials in New Delhi rejected the reports and said the arrangement was not new and has been continuing since 2017.

 

Indian government sources in New Delhi said the India-Bangladesh Friendship pipeline was operationalised in 2017. “It has been supplying diesel to Bangladesh on a commercial basis from the Numaligarh Refinery Limited. This diesel supply is part of regular ongoing energy trade between the two countries,” sources said, adding that fuel availability in India is being closely monitored.