Modi Push for Safer Kitchens Makes India No. 2 LPG Importer
- Drive to replace polluting cow dung firewood boosts imports
- India’s LPG imports rise 23% in 2016-17 to surpass Japan
Hindustan Petroleum Corp. liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cylinders sit stacked at a depot operated by the company in Mumbai, India, on Saturday, April 8, 2017. Expanding fuel shipments from the Persian Gulf will intensify competition from Europe to Asia, squeezing profits across the global refining industry and contributing to a looming glut of oil products.
Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/BloombergIndia toppled Japan as the world’s second-largest importer of liquefied petroleum gas as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pledge to provide cooking gas cylinders to the poor and wean them off polluting fuels drove up consumption.
Imports of LPG, mostly used as cooking fuel, soared 23 percent during the financial year that ended March 31 to 11 million tons, according to data from oil ministry’s Petroleum Planning & Analysis Cell. Japan’s imports slipped 3.2 percent during the same period to 10.6 million tons, according to its finance ministry. China remains the world’s top importer.