Sector-wise demand trends · Domestic vs Imported dynamics · Operation Epic Fury — Strait of Hormuz disruption impact on India's gas markets
Loading...
The annual chart has already told you FY25-26 was a down year. It has not told you that March alone fell to 3.66 MMT — its lowest since 2017 — or that Power sector RLNG dropped 76% in a single month, or that Petrochemical plants received just 0.05 MMT against 0.13 MMT the year before. Annual aggregation smooths over exactly the kind of shock India experienced in Q4 FY25-26. The Hormuz disruption was not a full-year event — it was a six-week supply severance that struck in India's highest-demand month. On March 9, the MoPNG invoked the Essential Commodities Act and issued the Natural Gas (Supply Regulation) Order, establishing a four-tier priority hierarchy for all available supply. The data in Section 2 maps almost directly onto that hierarchy.
Look at the monthly total chart. April through February FY25-26 tracks FY24-25 closely — occasionally above it. Then March: 3.66 MMT against 3.71 MMT the year before, and 4.30 MMT in March 2024. It is India's fiscal year-end peak month — refineries at full throughput, fertiliser plants pushing Kharif feedstock runs, industries executing Q4 production pushes. The Hormuz blockade hit this window precisely. LNG suppliers invoked force majeure; the MoPNG responded within days with a supply regulation order protecting domestic PNG and CNG for transport at 100% of their six-month average, fertiliser plants at 70%, and grid-connected industry at 80% — while directing petrochemical facilities to absorb cuts first and refineries to reduce to approximately 65% of their average. Spot LNG continued to arrive where buyers could secure alternative routing, supplementing regulated floors. The sector-wise outcome is visible in every chart that follows.