Relevance: GS III (Energy Security & Infrastructure) | Source: The Hindu

1. The Core Issue: A Strategic Blind Spot

While the government heavily focuses on securing crude oil, India faces a silent but severe crisis regarding Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG). The ongoing tensions in West Asia have made our LPG supply lines highly insecure.

2. Why is India Highly Vulnerable?

• Heavy Import Dependency: India does not produce enough gas. We import 60% of our total LPG requirement.
• The Hormuz Chokepoint: Alarmingly, 90% of these LPG imports pass through a single, highly risky maritime route: the Strait of Hormuz.
• “Kitchen Criticality” (The Human Factor): In countries like China, LPG is mostly used in factories (which can be safely paused during a crisis). In India, imported LPG goes almost entirely into domestic households for daily cooking. A sudden supply cut would create an immediate socio-economic crisis because household kitchens cannot be shut down.

3. The Dangerous Storage Deficit

• The Global Comparison: To survive global supply shocks, a country like Japan maintains a massive 108-day emergency LPG reserve.
• India’s Reality: India has only about 15 days of normal, operational storage. Even worse, our dedicated deep underground cavern storage (located in Visakhapatnam and Mangaluru) holds just a 1.5-day national supply.

4. The Administrative Solutions

To fix this structural weakness, the administration must focus on two areas:

• Build Strategic Buffers: Urgently expand underground rock caverns to store at least a 14 to 21-day emergency LPG reserve for the nation.
• Demand Shift (Energy Transition): Shift urban households away from imported LPG towards electric induction cooking. This can be achieved by combining it with renewable energy schemes like the PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana (free solar electricity), alongside expanding Piped Natural Gas (PNG) networks.

UPSC Value Box

Key Concept / Scheme	Simple Meaning
ISPRL	Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Ltd. A government entity that manages large underground rock caverns to store emergency fuel buffers against global supply shocks.
PMUY (Ujjwala Yojana)	A flagship scheme providing over 10 crore free LPG connections. While it vastly improved rural health, it paradoxically increased India’s massive reliance on imported LPG.

With reference to India’s energy security profile and strategic fuel storage, consider the following statements:

1. The vast majority of India’s Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) imports transit through the Strait of Hormuz.
2. In India, the primary consumer of imported LPG is the industrial petrochemical sector rather than the domestic household sector.
3. The Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Limited (ISPRL) currently maintains deep underground cavern storage facilities in Visakhapatnam and Mangaluru.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 and 2 only

(b) 1 and 3 only

(c) 3 only

(d) 1, 2 and 3

Correct Answer: (b)