Union petroleum minister Hardeep Singh Puri on November 17 said that India has signed a ‘historic’ deal with the US to import liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) amid growing pressure to diversify country’s energy sources.
Puri said state-run oil companies have clinched a one-year deal to to import 2.2 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) LPG from the US, buying around 10 percent of India's annual share in 2026.
"In our endeavour to provide secure affordable supplies of LPG to the people of India, we have been diversifying our LPG sourcing," Puri said in a post on X.
Under the country's first structure contract, PSUs will source LPG in 2026 from the US gulf coast for world's "fastest-growing" Indian market, Puri said.
The minister pointed out that the purchase of LPG is based on using Mount Belvieu as the benchmark and a team of top officials from Indian Oil, BPCL and HPCL had visited the US and engaged with top oil producers in the last few months before inking the deal.
Puri said PSU oil companies have been providing LPG at the "lowest global prices" to Indian consumers despite rising prices in the international market.
"Under the leadership of PM @narendramodi Ji, our PSU oil companies have been providing LPG at the lowest global prices to all our mothers and sisters. Even as global prices soared by over 60 percent last year, Modi Ji ensured that our Ujjwala consumers continued to receive LPG cylinder at just Rs 500-550 whereas the actual cost of the cylinder was over Rs 1,100. Government of India incurred the cost of over Rs 40,000 crores last year in order to ensure our mothers and sisters did not feel the burden of rising international LPG prices.
The deal comes amid speculation that a broader trade deal between New Delhi and Washington is likely to be concluded by the end of 2025. Under the trade deal, the Donald Trump's administration could drop the 25 percent tariff imposed on Indian exports for buying Russian energy.
Trump administration had imposed 50 percent tariffs on Indian shipments, including a 25 percent penalty for purchasing Russian crude.
In the last few weeks, New Delhi has actively made efforts to diversify its oil sources, reducing the dependence on Russian imports. Moreover, there has been “a lot of positive developments” in recent talks between the two nations after months of friction and stalled discussions, ANI had reported last week. "I think we’ve had a lot of positive developments with them recently," an official said. "We have two things going on with them. Of course, we have a reciprocal trade negotiation, but we also have a Russian oil issue, where we’ve seen market improvement on that end.”
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