The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has regained its position as India’s largest supplier of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), overtaking the United States after shipments from the Gulf nation surged in September, according to data compiled by maritime intelligence firm Kpler.
The UAE accounted for 39 per cent of India’s LPG imports in September, compared with 13 per cent in August. Its shipments rose 182 per cent month-on-month to 547,000 tonnes from 193,000 tonnes, making it the country’s biggest supplier of the cooking fuel.
The United States, which had led India’s LPG supply for the preceding six months, slipped to second place. Its shipments declined 58 per cent to 136,000 tonnes in September from 323,000 tonnes in August. The US share of India’s LPG imports fell from 53 per cent to 23 per cent over the same period.
The shift comes amid disruptions to energy shipments caused by the Middle East conflict and restrictions on maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. India imports around 60 per cent of its LPG requirements, with approximately 90 per cent of those imports traditionally arriving from Gulf countries through the strategic waterway.
Kuwait and Qatar also increased their LPG supplies to India in September, ranking third and fourth respectively. However, India’s total LPG imports fell 4 per cent to 1.39 million tonnes during the month compared with August.
Kpler said physical energy flows had proved more resilient than initially anticipated. It estimated that combined crude oil volumes leaving the Gulf, excluding Iran, along with supplies from Saudi Arabia’s western coast and the UAE’s eastern coast, had recovered to around pre-conflict levels of 18.5 million barrels per day when diverted shipments were included.
The firm also reported that daily oil flows from the Middle East reached 92 per cent of their pre-war baseline during the final week of September, despite continuing Iranian restrictions on vessels attempting to transit the Strait of Hormuz.
Analysts attribute the recovery partly to ships receiving US military assistance and escorts, as well as the use of shuttle supertankers to transport oil through the strait before transferring cargo to other vessels waiting nearby. Gulf countries are also using pipelines to bypass the waterway and maintain export flows.
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