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Informist, Friday, Apr. 24, 2026

--Govt: Panic buying seen at some petrol pumps, gas distributors 

--CONTEXT: Government officials briefing media on West Asia war 

--Govt: Kuwait airspace partly open, limited flight ops to India soon 

NEW DELHI – The government Friday urged people to avoid panic buying of petrol, diesel, and liquefied petroleum gas, insisting that there is no shortage as oil refineries are operating at "optimum" capacity and future supplies are also tied up.

"No dry-out has been reported at any LPG distributorship. Yet, there are reports of panic buying," Sujata Sharma, joint secretary in the petroleum ministry said at an inter-ministerial briefing on West Asia crisis here. "Some people are crowding the distributors' showrooms to get LPG cylinders. Please don't do that. Just wait for the home delivery of cylinder after online booking," she said.

The joint secretary said that regular supply of LPG is being ensured for domestic consumers. Besides, 81,000 5-kg LPG cylinders were sold Thursday. She said that people are also shifting to piped natural gas and 527,000 PNG connections have been "gasified" since the crisis began. Besides, 597,000 new consumers have registered for PNG connections, she said.

Sharma said that there were reports of panic buying of petrol and diesel from some petrol pumps even as there was no dry-out at any retail outlets. Responding to a media query about the losses incurred by the oil marketing companies after the crude rates spiked, Sharma said that it will be known only when the annual results of the companies come.

Mandeep Singh Randhawa, director in the shipping ministry said no incident involving any Indian-flagged ship has been reported in the past 24 hours and all Indian sailors in the Persian Gulf are safe.

Aseem Mahajan, additional secretary in the external affairs ministry said that Kuwait airspace is now open and Jazeera Airways and Kuwait Airways will be resuming limited number of flights to India soon. End

Reported by Asim Khan

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

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