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How India's cooking fuel shortage is driving up California's gas prices
Indian refiners' decision to cut alkylate exports could not come at a worse time for California.
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Reuters - Mon, 18, May 2026
- 16:37 EDT
- 37
LPG Gas / Pexels
In India, there is a shortage of cooking gas. In California, motorists are paying $6 a gallon for gasoline. They are both symptoms of the worst-ever energy supply disruption. They are also directly connected, and evidence of the knock-on effects across the global economy of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.
Iran's near-closure of the Strait of Hormuz has thrown global oil trade into disarray, cutting off importers from around one-fifth of the global oil supply that traversed the waterway before the war. This has forced oil buyers to burn through stockpiles and take other emergency measures to manage global fuel shortages.
Some attempts to address the shortages, such as the Indian government's efforts to shore up liquefied petroleum gas supplies, are spreading the pain.
India, the most populous country, uses LPG as its primary cooking fuel. Cut off from Middle Eastern LPG, which represented over 90 percent of India's total imports of the fuel before the Iran war, New Delhi has directed refiners to maximize LPG output. To comply, refiners have cut production of alkylates - motor fuel additives made using LPG as feedstock.
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