India’s imports of refined declined to an average of 765,000 barrels per day (b/d) in March 2026 as closure of the Strait of Hormuz (SoH) impacted supplies, pulling down the overall import volume to its lowest since 2018.
OPEC in its May monthly oil market report (MOMR) said “Product imports into India fell to the lowest level since 2018 due to a sharp drop in LPG, which India primarily sources from the Middle East.”
According to the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC), India’s refined petroleum product imports fell by 25.5 per cent Y-o-Y in March 2026.
OPEC pointed out that India’s product imports declined sharply in March, averaging 765,000 b/d and representing the lowest import volume since December 2018. M-o-m, product imports were down 245,000 b/d, or 24 per cent.
“The decline was primarily due to a 397,000 b/d fall in LPG imports, slightly offset by ‘other products’, which in the case of India generally consists of bitumen. Y-o-y, product imports were down 476,000 b/d, or 38 per cent,” it added.
India’s crude oil imports fell to an eight-month low of 4.5 mb/d in March 2026, due to trade flow disruptions and despite a temporary suspension of sanctions. M-o-m, crude imports into India declined by 775,000 b/d or almost 15 per cent, the OPEC MOMR said.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) in its latest commentary on impact of the West Asia conflict on LPG flows said “India’s LPG imports have been particularly affected, dropping by more than half over the first two months (March-April 2026) of the conflict, a loss of around 430,000 b/d.”
With respect to LPG flows, the IEA emphasised that the conflict has triggered a global energy crisis of unprecedented magnitude. For comparison, around 3.4 billion people across the developing world use LPG as their primary source of energy for cooking. As of 2025, 30 per cent of all seaborne LPG exports transited through the SoH.
The impact of supply side disruptions on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) imports by India also reflected in consumption of the commodity—the key cooking fuel for more than 33.50 crore households.
The OPEC report pointed out that LPG consumption witnessed the largest decline in March 2026 of about 120,000 b/d y-o-y, in March, down from a y-o-y increase of 100,000 b/d in February 2026.
As per PPAC, India’s LPG consumption fell by almost 16 per cent m-o-m and 13 per cent y-o-y to 2.38 million tonne (mt) on a provisional basis—the lowest in the last 21 months.
However, India’s cumulative LPG consumption in FY26 rose by 6 per cent y-o-y to 33.21 mt on a provisional basis, which is the highest annual growth in usage since FY19.