India’s move to diversify its LPG procurement by sourcing more supplies from the U.S. may not be the silver bullet that helps it weather the current crisis, despite the U.S. being a major LPG producer and expanding its export terminal capacity, James Rockall, CEO and Managing Director of the World Liquid Gas Association (WLGA), told The Hindu.

Separately, he said India should also focus on expanding its LPG storage capacity and managing freight costs to further strengthen its position in the present global market.

Diversifying an imperative for India

Speaking in a broader context, Mr. Rockall emphasised that diversifying sources of LPG procurement was imperative for India to respond to the supply crisis in West Asia, with the U.S. emerging as an “obvious choice”.

India currently sources 67% of its LPG imports from the North American country, Union Oil Minister Hardeep Puri had said.

“The obvious choice was the United States because they are a big producer, a growing producer and are investing in their export terminals,” Mr. Rockall said.

However, he cautioned that the U.S. may not be the “silver bullet” that would help India tide over the crisis.

“It is not the magic solution that is going to lead you out of the crisis because India is not alone in trying to procure from the U.S. It already has a lot of its product tied up in term deals,” he said. “Getting access to that product in the short term is never going to be easy, but I have been very impressed with the way India has responded to this proactively.”

Mr. Rockall also pointed to other potential sources of LPG that India could explore, including Canada, Algeria, Argentina, Australia and West Africa.

Shipping and storage

The CEO of the industry association also said Indian refiners should actively manage freight costs to take advantage of lower free-on-board (FOB) prices when they arise.

“It is better for Indian companies to try to manage the freight costs actively than being a passive kind of recipient of what those costs are. [These could be either through] looking at short-term charters, working with shipping fleets, owning vessels or whatever,” he said. Such strategies, he added, “would allow Indian companies to capture the shipping economics themselves rather than leave them to suppliers and gives guarantee of availability.”

This would also help Indian oil marketing companies (OMCs) avoid competing in the open freight market, where premiums have risen amid the West Asia-induced crisis.

Mr. Rockall also stressed the need for India to expand its LPG storage capacity to better manage market volatility.

In a separate context, the WLGA CEO said the global LPG market was expected to have “enough supplies”, although geopolitical headwinds had kept the market volatile.

“Perhaps one of the things that went wrong during the crisis was that India did not have a lot of buffer [for LPG] and the impact [of the crisis] was immediately cascaded to the end consumer,” he said.

“Having storage does not solve the problem but it gives you a little bit more time to fix the issues. I think greater storage is something India should look at to manage the volatility of the market,” Mr. Rockall said.

‘World regards India as an important LPG market’

“The world regards India as one of the most important markets — if not the most important market — in the world. I think what you have done with the Ujjwala [scheme] is an absolute standout demonstration,” he said.

Mr. Rockall also highlighted the strong political will behind the initiative and the robust demand dynamics, saying these factors have strengthened investor confidence in India’s LPG supply chain.

The WLGA will bring together leading industry leaders and professionals from across the global LPG value chain in Istanbul for Liquid Gas Week, taking place from October 12 to 16 this year.