LPG Cylinders Only for Hospitals and Schools, Hotels and Restaurants Barred

LPG Cylinder: Oil marketing companies (OMCs) have instructed LPG distributors to provide commercial gas cylinders exclusively to hospitals and educational institutions for the time being. Supplies to hotels, restaurants, and other commercial entities have been temporarily halted.

This communication indicates that OMCs have notified LPG distributors that, following the latest guidelines from the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, non-domestic (commercial) cylinders will now be available solely for hospitals and educational institutions. For the moment, hotels, restaurants, and other commercial entities will not receive commercial cylinders.In the meantime, the booking period for domestic LPG cylinders has also been prolonged. Previously, the booking period for a second cylinder was 21 days, but it has now been extended to 25 days.

Is NDNE dispatch also prohibited?

In another internal message released on March 8, OMCs stated that due to the deteriorating war situation and disruptions in imports, the supply of Non-Domestic Non-Essential (NDNE) or commercial cylinders has been suspended until further notice. The notice specifies that all distributors and direct customers must be informed of this decision, and that the relevant divisional managers and state-level sales teams should personally reach out to key customers to clarify the situation.

It has also been mentioned that distributors, retailers, large customers, and business partners should be kept updated about product availability and reassured that supply will resume as soon as conditions normalize. An LPG distributor, who wished to remain anonymous, mentioned that the loading and billing of commercial cylinders has been paused for now. Supplies will not restart until a new LPG shipment is confirmed. He said that currently, LPG stocks at bottling plants are being reserved for refilling domestic cylinders. Commercial cylinders will only be made available on a limited basis for emergency services such as hospitals.

Hotel Association warns of closure

According to distributors, the supply of commercial cylinders has also been halted at Indian Oil Corporation’s Devanagonthi terminal in Bengaluru. This is due to the non-arrival of LPG shipments from the Chennai and Mangaluru ports. The situation in Bengaluru has become dire due to a shortage of commercial LPG cylinders. The Bengaluru Hotels Association has warned that hotels may close starting March 10th if supplies are not restored soon.

Another LPG dealer said the government has temporarily halted the bottling of commercial cylinders nationwide. “Commercial cylinder refilling has been halted since this morning, and there are no dispatches nationwide. This problem is not limited to Bengaluru, but is nationwide. The government will decide when supplies will resume based on LPG availability,” the dealer said.