Why OMCs stopped fresh LPG refill bookings despite eligible waiting period

The government has defended the decision of state-owned oil marketing companies (OMCs) to withhold processing of fresh LPG refill bookings for some eligible consumers during this year's supply disruption.

In a written reply to Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Suresh Gopi said the move was aimed at clearing long-pending orders and ensuring fairer and faster delivery of cooking gas cylinders.

Gopi said the temporary system controls were introduced after the outbreak of conflict in West Asia in February 2026 severely disrupted India's LPG imports.

Before the conflict, India imported about 60% of its LPG requirement, with nearly 90% of those imports transiting through the Strait of Hormuz.

The closure of the strait severely constrained supplies, prompting the government to take a series of measures to stabilise domestic LPG availability.

As part of these measures, the government introduced a minimum inter-refill gap of 25 days in urban areas and 45 days in rural areas and rationalised stock management at LPG bottling plants.

The ministry said PSU OMCs also implemented system controls requiring distributors to first clear long-pending bookings by following the First In First Out (FIFO) principle before processing newer orders.

“This prevented customers facing prolonged delay and ensured timely and equitable delivery of LPG refill to maximum genuine consumers,” the minister said.

“The measures also enabled OMCs to identify distributors with excessive pendency and take corrective action, thereby improving delivery efficiency and ensuring more equitable and timely supply of LPG refills to genuine consumers,” he added.

The reply came in response to concerns that OMCs were freezing fresh refill bookings even after consumers had completed the mandated waiting period and blocking distributors from servicing eligible customers.

The government, however, maintained that the measures helped improve delivery performance.

It said the average LPG refill delivery time across the country fell from 4.33 days on June 1, 2025, to 2.15 days on July 27, 2026.

The ministry also tabled state-wise data on refill bookings, deliveries and backlogs for the last six months.