India signs 1-year deal to import LPG from US

India has concluded a deal to import 2.2 million tonnes of LPG from the US. The announcement was made on Monday by Hardeep Puri, Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas.

"In a significant development, Indian PSU oil companies have successfully concluded a 1-year deal for imports of around 2.2 MTPA LPG, close to 10 per cent of our annual imports, for the contract year 2026, to be sourced from the US Gulf Coast. It is the first structured contract of US LPG for the Indian market," Puri said.

He described the development as a historic first.

"In a historic first, one of the largest and the world’s fastest growing LPG market has opened up to the US. In our endeavour to provide secure affordable supplies of LPG to the people of India, we have been diversifying our LPG sourcing. This purchase is based on using Mont Belvieu as the benchmark for LPG purchases and a team of our officials from Indian Oil, BPCL, and HPCL had visited the US and engaged in discussions with major US producers over the last few months, which have been concluded now," the minister said.

He said under PM Narendra Modi, Indian PSU oil companies had been providing LPG at the lowest global prices.

"Even as global prices soared by over 60 per cent last year, PM Modi 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," Puri said.

He said the government incurred the cost of over Rs 40,000 crore last year in order to ensure women did not feel the burden of rising international LPG prices.

The development comes just days after US President Donald Trump said a trade deal with India was coming and also after Trump reduced tariffs on around 254 food products, including 299 agricultural items which account for around $1 billion of India's exports to the US.