Amidst the ongoing tension and conflict in West Asia, the Modi government has taken a major step to avert the fuel crisis in the country. After the gas supply from Gulf countries was badly affected, India has increased the purchase of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) from America to a record pace. This big revelation has come from the latest data of marine information and data company 'Kepler'.

Supply from Gulf countries decreased, America became the biggest support

According to Kpler data, India imported about 6.2 lakh tonnes of LPG from the US in the month of August, while in July this figure had reached 8.9 lakh tonnes. It is worth noting that the supply from America in August was more than 73 percent of India's total LPG imports.

On the contrary, a huge decline has been recorded in LPG coming from Gulf countries. In August, India could get only 1.4 lakh tonnes of LPG from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and about 60,000 tonnes of LPG from Qatar. The surprising thing is that India did not receive a single consignment of LPG from Saudi Arabia during July and August.

Situation worsened due to closure of Strait of Hormuz

After the war between Iran and America, the strategically important 'Strait of Hormuz' is practically closed. This waterway is considered very important for transporting crude oil and gas from Gulf countries to big consumer countries like India. Due to its disruption, the supply chain from the Gulf region has been completely broken.

America overtook Qatar in LNG import also

Not only in the case of LPG, but also in the case of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), India's dependence and supply on America has increased. LNG imports from the US increased to 7.5 lakh tonnes in August, from 7.2 lakh tonnes in July. At the same time, Qatar, which was once India's largest LNG supplier, has now come down to zero; Imports from Qatar came to a complete halt in the month of April. Let us tell you that earlier Qatar used to send up to 12 lakh tonnes of LNG to India every month.

Did India deliberately change its supplier?

Throwing light on this entire development, Kepler Senior Manager Sumit Ritolia said, “Especially in the case of LPG, there has been a huge increase in imports from America in the last few months. However, this does not at all mean that India has deliberately chosen America instead of West Asia. The main reason for this is the huge reduction in supplies from West Asia and India is diversifying its energy sources to different places.”

long distance import budget increased

The burden on India's pockets is increasing due to importing gas from distant countries like America. According to Sumit Ritolia, due to the long sea journey, the freight charges of the ships are very high. Apart from this, due to limited supply in the global market, the basic cost of gas and oil has also increased.

Russia is still the king of crude oil, America's dominance increased

Amidst the gas crisis, Russia still remains India's most reliable and biggest supplier of crude oil. In August, India bought about 2 million barrels of crude oil daily from Russia. This quantity is more than three times that of the second largest supplier UAE (6.1 lakh barrels per day). Experts believe that given the limited supply in the global market, Russian oil imports are unlikely to reduce at present.

Along with this, India has also imported 3.83 lakh barrels per day of crude oil from Venezuela in August. If we look at America and Venezuela together, now the American continent is playing a very decisive role in meeting the energy needs of India.