Relevance: GS-1 (Geography) & GS-3 (Economy, Energy Security) | Source: The Indian Express

1. What is the Current Crisis?

Geopolitical tensions in West Asia have severely disrupted India’s energy supply.

• The Sea Route Blockade: The Strait of Hormuz, a highly critical global trade route, is practically blocked due to regional conflicts.
• The Supply Shock: Because of this blockage, not a single ship carrying Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) has reached India from the Persian Gulf for over two months.
• Administrative Action (Rationing): The government has been forced to ration the available gas. Supply is strictly prioritized for daily essentials (like household kitchen gas and public transport) while being cut for certain industries.
• Financial Loss for Companies: Public Oil Marketing Companies (like IOCL and BPCL) are suffering huge financial losses. To protect the common man from inflation, they are selling fuel below the actual market cost.

2. Why is India so Vulnerable? (The Root Cause)

An administrator must understand why a distant conflict hurts India so deeply:

• High Import Dependency: India does not produce enough of its own gas. We rely on other countries for nearly 50% of our total natural gas requirement.
• Over-Reliance on One Route: A massive 60% of our LNG imports (mostly from Qatar and the UAE) must pass through the narrow Strait of Hormuz. When this single “chokepoint” is closed, our energy lifeline is cut.
• No Emergency Backup: India has built underground ‘Strategic Petroleum Reserves’ for emergency crude oil. However, we have almost zero emergency strategic storage for LNG. Our current tanks only hold enough gas for daily, routine use.

3. What is the Government Doing?

Realizing the danger of having no backup, the government and corporate sector are moving fast:

• Expanding Storage: Petronet LNG (India’s largest gas importer) is urgently planning to increase its storage tank capacity by 70% at major ports like Dahej, Kochi, and Gopalpur.
• The Scientific Challenge (Cryogenics): Storing LNG is highly complex. To keep the gas in a liquid state so it can be stored, it must be frozen to -162°C.
• High Cost and Time: Storing gas at these freezing temperatures requires specialized Cryogenic tanks. Building just one of these tanks requires heavy funding and takes at least three years.

4. The Way Forward (Policy Action)

To ensure India does not face this crisis again, the administration must focus on:

• Diversify Suppliers: India must stop relying entirely on the Middle East. We need to actively buy LNG from safer, distant markets like the USA, Australia, and Africa.
• Boost Domestic Production: Speed up our own natural gas exploration within India to fundamentally reduce our dependence on imports.
• Fast-Track Approvals: The government must speed up environmental and administrative clearances so that new storage tanks can be built much faster than the standard three-year timeline.

UPSC Value Box

• Cryogenics: The science of extremely low temperatures. Cooling natural gas to -162°C shrinks its volume by roughly 600 times, making it easy to transport across oceans in specialized ships.
• Under-Recovery: The formal economic term for the massive financial loss suffered by oil companies when the government forces them to sell fuel to the public at prices lower than the actual cost of buying and refining it.
• Strategic Reserves: Emergency national stockpiles of fuel designed specifically to keep the country running during wars, blockades, or global supply shocks.

With reference to India’s energy security and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), consider the following statements:

1. Natural gas is liquefied by cooling it to extremely low temperatures, which significantly shrinks its volume to facilitate faster sea transportation.
2. Currently, the Government of India manages massive strategic emergency stockpiles of LNG in underground rock caverns across the country.
3. The Strait of Hormuz is a highly strategic maritime chokepoint that directly connects the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman.

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)