New Delhi, 16 March (H.S.): The Indian government has reiterated that there is no shortage of cooking gas in the country despite ongoing conflicts in West Asia, emphasizing robust energy security measures, safe passage for commercial vessels, and efforts to repatriate Indian nationals.

Domestic consumers continue to receive steady liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) supplies, with no reports of stock depletion at distributor levels nationwide.

Joint Secretary Sujata Sharma of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry stated during a Monday press briefing that nearly 90 percent of LPG bookings now occur online, while delivery authentication code usage has risen to 72 percent.

States have intensified crackdowns on hoarding and black-marketing, advising dual-connection holders of PNG and LPG to surrender the latter and avoid panic bookings.

Crude oil supplies remain sufficient, with refineries operating at full capacity and petrol pumps functioning normally without any outages.

Natural gas distribution proceeds without interruption, ensuring 100 percent availability for CNG and PNG users. Commercial LPG users are being incentivized by city gas distribution companies to switch to PNG, accelerating new connections.

An LPG carrier, Shivalik, dispatched from the Persian Gulf and having navigated the Strait of Hormuz, is set to arrive at an Indian port around 5 PM today, with all documentation and priority berthing pre-arranged to prevent delays.

All Indian seafarers in the Persian Gulf region are safe, with continuous monitoring of 22 Indian-flagged vessels west of the strait carrying 611 crew members; no incidents reported in the last 24 hours.

Amid challenges, the Indian embassy in Tehran remains fully operational, having relocated students to safer cities and facilitated over 550 nationals' exit via land borders to Armenia, including 284 pilgrims.

Approximately 90 others reached Azerbaijan with embassy assistance on visas and immigration formalities; many have returned home, with the rest following soon, as per Foreign Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar