By Arun Pratap Singh
Garhwal Post Bureau
Dehradun, 6 Apr: Divisional Retail Sales Head of IOCL and State level coordinator of Oil Industry in Uttarakhand Krishna Kumar Gupta and Senior Manager (LPG) Dehradun, Manish Kumar Bachhuwan today addressed a joint press conference organised by the Press Information Bureau (PIB) here today. During the press conference, Gupta asserted that the Central Government, the oil companies and the state government are making joint efforts to ensure normal supplies of petrol, diesel, LPG and PNG in Uttarakhand. During the press conference, Assistant Director of PIB, Sanjeev Sundriyal was also present.
Gupta said that the supplies of petrol and diesel in Uttarakhand are near normal and there is no panic buying of fuel across the state. He added that there is adequate stock of petrol and diesel across the petrol pumps of various oil companies in the state. He reminded that Uttarakhand has a total of 978 petrol pumps. Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL) has 431, Bharat Petroleum (BPCL) has 214, HPCL has 254, Reliance has 26 while Nayara has 51 petrol pumps. No queue has been reported from anywhere in the state, despite the ongoing war in the gulf region.
Gupta shared that Uttarakhand consumes around 60,000 KL of petrol and 75,000 KL of diesel every month on an average. Compared to the month of March, 2025, in March, 2026 there has been an increase in sale of petrol by 2 percent and in sale of diesel by 6 percent.
Admitting that commercial users of LPG have been slightly affected due to war in the gulf, he added that the domestic consumers are being ensured adequate supply of LPG. He reminded that India imports 60 percent of its LPG needs. In order to deal with the situation created by the US-Iran war, the government has made certain modifications in the production of LPG by the refineries. As compared to the past, the refineries have been asked to prioritise LPG production, he said, adding that the refineries are working to their full capacity at present. In response to a question from the media, Gupta said that while, before the war, the consumers were getting their cylinders in a couple of days after booking, now they are getting cylinders in about 6 days after booking. He shared that against the total booking of 34,000 cylinders yesterday, 27,000 cylinders were supplied. He claimed that due to rumours after the war started, there was panic booking by the consumers which increased the backlog to 6 days. Gupta shared that the average consumption of domestic gas in Uttarakhand is around 1.6 lakh cylinders per month and the average consumption of non-domestic LPG is 4,800 cylinders per month. He claimed that around 85 percent of LPG delivery to domestic consumers is being achieved through online booking and OTP confirmation through Delivery against Code (DAC). In respect of the hills and particularly the remote areas, he admitted that higher online bookings and OTP based Delivery against Code (DAC) delivery is not easy to ensure due to internet connectivity issues.
He however added that commercial (non-domestic) LPG supply has been affected but high priority consumers such as hospitals, hostels are being prioritised. While during the earlier days of the war led crisis, the commercial gas supply was reduced to just 34 percent, it has now been increased to 70 percent of the normal requirement.
He also shared that the Centre has directed PNG companies like GAIL, IOL-Adani, Haridwar Natural Gas Pvt Ltd (HNGPL) and GASONET in Uttarakhand to fast track the work of PNG connections in the state. Currently there are 36,000 PNG connections but the connections are now being rapidly added. In March alone, 1,400 new PNG connections were added. In response to a related question, he conceded that companies like GAIL, etc., have been behind schedule in laying PNG pipelines and granting connections but added that they have been told to fast track the work but as this requires infrastructure work, this may take some time.
Gupta also claimed that through raids and inspections by the state government as well as oil companies, earnest efforts are being made to ensure that there is no black marketing of LPG in the state.
In respect of the migrant workers and students, etc., Gupta urged them to purchase smaller 5 kg cylinders from the agencies but added that they are more expensive to buy but readily available.
