News India Times

www.newsindiatimes.com – that’s all you need to know Dr. Sudhir M. Parikh Founder, Chairman & Publisher Ilayas Quraishi Chief Operating Officer Ela Dutt Editor Archana Adalja Contributing Editor T. Vishnudatta Jayaraman Advisor Arun Shah Ahmedabad Bureau Chief Peter Ferreira, Deval Parikh, Freelance Photographers Bhailal M. Patel Executive Vice President Jim Gallentine Business Development Manager - U.S. Shahnaz Sheikh Senior Manager Advertising & Marketing Sonia Lalwani Advertising Manager Shailu Desai Advertising New York Muslima Shethwala Syed Sheeraz Mahmood Advertising Chicago Digant Sompura Consultant for Business Development Ahmedabad, India Hervender Singh Circulation Manager Main Office Editorial & Corporate Headquarters 1655 Oak Tree Toad, Suite 155 Edison, NJ 08820-2843 Tel. (212) 675-7515 Fax. 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Postmaster: Send address change to News India Times, 1655 Oak Tree Toad, Suite 155 Edison, NJ 08820-2843 Annual Subscription: United States: $28 Disclaimer: Parikh Worldwide Media assumes no liability for claims/ assumptions made in advertisements and advertorials. Disclaimer:The views and opinions expressed on this page are those of the authors and Parikh Worldwide Media does not officially endorse, and is not responsible or liable for them. Commentary News India Times (July 4, 2026 - July 10, 2026) July 10, 2026 3 Riding Out Hormuz W hen the Strait of Hormuz closed in February-end, GoI made it a priority that Indian citizens, especially the most vulnerable, be protected from unprecedented supply and price disrup- tions. That move has held through almost 4 months later. A country importing more than 85% of its crude, the argument ran, could not survive closure of Hormuz through which more than 20-30% of the world’s hydrocarbons move. Today, stocks are full, pumps are open, and the Indian con- sumer has paid less for energy through this crisis than any other consumer in the world. Nearly 60% of India’s LPG consump- tion used to be supplied fromWest Asia. Much of that supply, almost overnight, dropped to zero. On the supply side, LPG Control Order was passed on March 8, which mandated all refineries to divert all their C3-C4 carbon streams to maximise LPG production. Refineries that had never made cooking gas were reconfigured within a few days, and produc- tion was raised from 35 TMT a day to 54 TMT a day. At the peak of war, when no vessel was moving out of Hormuz, over 12 Indian LPG vessels were quietly moved out of the strait without any toll payment, the largest number for any country. Cargoes were secured and ship-to-ship transfers were done from Yanbu and Fujairah ports down the Red Sea route. Ves- sels were sent inside Hormuz to get new cargoes, and fresh supply lines were opened with several countries like Algeria, Japan and Canada. Every producer India had ever dealt with, within the Gulf and outside it, stood with it. But demand also had to be prioritised. Digital authentication code was made mandatory to prevent diversion of cook- ing gas by black marketers. A 25-day and 45-day limit was imposed, so that every citizen got cylinders without anyone able to hoard them. As commercial cylinders are not regulated and any one buyer could have bought entire supplies available at once, it was routed through industry associa- tions and state civil supplies departments. Industry was moved onto piped natural gas, large kitchens and establishments encouraged to fall back on other fuels wherever possible, and household piped gas and CNG were kept in the ‘no-cut’ category. GoI came together to enable a shift to piped gas connections through faster municipal permissions. Between Febru- ary and June, international benchmark for cooking gas, Saudi CP, rose by nearly 50%. But a cylinder that would cost more than 1,600 at import-linked rate still reaches an Ujjwala home at 642. GoI absorbs roughly 900 loss on each Ujjwala cylinder, and close to 600 on every cyl- inder going to every other household. So, every Indian family today pays much less for their cooking gas than households in other countries. A bold central excise cut of 10 a litre in March absorbed substantial part of the price shock, as crude had nearly doubled and PSU oil companies ab- sorbed daily losses run- ning to over 5-10 bilion through this quarter. Across those same months, petrol at US pumps rose by more than 40%, and in Britain by close to 20%, with double- digit increases across much of Europe. The rise in Indian pumps was held to around 7%. India’s foreign reserves stand at near $690 billion, down only modestly from the all-time high of $728.49 billion recorded in the very week the conflict began, with the economy growing at 7.8% last quarter. As for oil reserves, energy locked underground earns nothing and costs a great deal to hold. So, it’s run through a system of import terminals, depots, pipelines, refineries and storages spread across the country. India today has 24 refineries, more than 47,000 km of oil and gas pipe- lines, and over 100,000 petrol pumps that serve nearly 80 million people every day. Almost 4 months into the largest energy disrup- tion of our times, India did not have to take any emergency rationing mea- sures. This was possible only because the ground had been prepared in the years before. The widening of India’s crude basket from 27 countries to 41, the dou- bling of import terminals, and pipelines and reserves built across a decade were not abstractions when Hormuz closed. They were the very reasons the lights stayed on. By Hardeep Singh Puri, Ministry for Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri, India’s Ministry for Petroleum and Natural Gas PHOTO:REUTERS/FRANCIS MASCARENHAS PHOTO:REUTERS/ANUSHREE FADNAVIS India-flagged tanker Desh Garima unloads crude oil at an offloading terminal after transiting the Strait of Hormuz, in Mumbai, India, April 30, 2026. A plane flies over the Indian Oil Corporation Building in New Delhi, India, March 4, 2025.