India Inks Landmark US LPG Contract for 2.2 Million Tonnes

India’s oil ministry has signed a landmark one‑year LPG contract to import 2.2 million tonnes of liquefied petroleum gas from the United States.

This is the first structured US LPG purchase, which will include almost 10 percent of the total imports made in the country during the year 2026 of the contract as announced by Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri.

The gas will originate at the US Gulf coast and will be made to compete with the Mont Belvieu benchmark, which is one of the main references in the world LPG market. Puri described the deal as a historic first and emphasized on how India has diversified supply and got affordable and stable gas to domestic consumers.

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The contract was negotiated by state-owned refiners, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum (BPCL), and Hindustan Petroleum (HPCL) with the participation of large US producers, such as Chevron, Phillips 66, and TotalEnergies. This trend of abandoning traditional suppliers of the Gulf is indicative of evolving trends in trade and existing India-US trade negotiations.

Industry wise, the acquisition increases the energy security of India since it depends less on West Asian sources of LPG like Qatar, UAE and Saudi Arabia which have been the dominant channels. Analysts also discern a political strategic side: greater US imports can relax the wider trade debate through the response to Washington fears of a trade surplus.

This agreement not only gives India a major new source of LPG but also preconditions a further US-India energy partnership, which is an indication of diversification and strength of its fast-growing cooking-gas sector.