DC Edit | Amid LPG Crisis, Govt Must Be Transparent
Supply concerns grow as Gulf war threatens oil flow through Strait of Hormuz
The Gulf war has created the biggest oil supply disruption in history. The choking of the Strait of Hormuz, a channel for about 20 per cent of the world’s oil and natural gas supply to India, is a clever retaliatory move by Iran that was attacked by the United States and Israel. The blockade has not only sent the prices at the pump spiralling in the US and Europe but also set off panic among the people who are scrambling for cooking gas and panic-buying petrol and diesel.
Imagine Karnataka having to do without its favourite dosa, Tamil Nadu without idly and Hyderabad without biryani due to supply constraints on fuel to cook. The gig industry revolving around supply of food to customers is also hit as hard as the restaurateurs are struggling unable to get commercial gas cylinders.
The plight of hospitals, schools, and campus and community kitchens can well be imagined as the cries go out for LPG, leaving alone the fact that people dying at this time are also inconveniencing their kin and the system as crematories need gas as well. The government’s simple assertion that there is no scarcity as stated by the petroleum minister in the Lok Sabha does very little to assuage the anxiety in people who are lining up in forlorn hope at cooking gas distribution depots carrying empty cylinders.
When clear communication needs to be backed up by visible action from centrally controlled distribution agencies of the nation’s major oil and energy marketing companies, all we are being asked to do is to place blind faith in the government’s statements and briefings at which the media cannot air questions and must depend on sterile handouts.
If the overall picture is one of high security of energy sources and storage, the government should be able to follow that up with demonstrable action to convince the people that they will get their cooking gas, maybe with some delays considering the hyped-up demand. But there is a huge divergence between the 2.5 days for supply that the government talks about and what the gas distribution companies and their often-unobtainable IVR systems state as an anticipated date of delivery.
It is a fact that the government has asked the fuel refiners and marketing companies to prioritise LPG production by diverting propane and butane as they process crude. Measures to tackle such emergencies as caused by war must be innovative but they cannot be touted as the panacea that will make a difference even if some of the people are behaving irrationally by panic-shopping, as they may have done in the time of Covid pandemic too.
Can the agencies not be transparent about the status of domestic and commercial LPG cylinders bookings and keep customers informed of when the supply chain issues will be sorted and a reasonable timeframe be provided for distribution of cylinders?
Merely telling the Iranian President about the need to ensure the movement of goods and energy resources through the Strait of Hormuz is insufficient at a time when the ability to cause disruption has become a war weapon. And India’s diplomacy has been constrained by not being able to speak freely on the original cause of the war that was initiated by the US and Israel against Iran. Nor was it sympathetic to a national leader being eliminated in a military attack, however distasteful his record in repressing his own people.
