India has moved to accept an Iranian liquefied petroleum gas shipment for the first time in years after a temporary U.S. relaxation of sanctions on Iran’s oil and refined fuel exports, according to LSEG trade flow data and three industry sources familiar with the matter.
Industry participants said the shipment, carried on the sanctioned tanker Aurora, is expected to arrive shortly at the west coast port of Mangalore. LSEG data indicates the vessel was initially bound for China before being redirected.
Allocation and payment
Sources told reporters the Iranian LPG cargo will be divided among India’s three state-owned fuel retailers - Indian Oil Corp, Bharat Petroleum Corp, and Hindustan Petroleum Corp. They said the cargo was purchased via a trader and that payment will be made in rupees. The same sources added that India is assessing the possibility of purchasing additional Iranian LPG shipments.
At the same time, a senior government official indicated no confirmed information of loaded Iranian cargoes. Rajesh Kumar Sinha, special secretary in the federal shipping ministry, said at a press conference: "(There are) no loaded cargoes from Iran, we have not heard of that." The three oil companies named and the federal oil ministry did not immediately provide comment.
Context: supply disruption and demand pressure
India, the world’s second-largest importer of LPG, is confronting its most severe gas supply crisis in decades. The government has cut industrial supplies to prioritize household access to cooking gas. According to the figures cited by sources, India consumed 33.15 million metric tons of LPG in the past year, with imports making up about 60% of that demand, and roughly 90% of imports historically sourced from the Middle East.
Market participants also said India has been working to move out LPG shipments that had been stranded in the Strait of Hormuz amid disruption to energy flows linked to the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran. So far, four LPG tankers - Shivalik, Nanda Devi, Pine Gas, and Jag Vasant - have been moved out of the strait. Officials and industry players also reported that India has been loading LPG onto its own empty vessels that were stranded in the Persian Gulf.
Outlook
While industry sources and LSEG trade flows point to a renewed physical trade in Iranian LPG, the government’s shipping official publicly stated he had no confirmation of loaded Iranian cargoes. The divergence in accounts underscores uncertainty around future flows and the pace at which additional Iranian shipments might be contracted and cleared.