India's US LPG bill hits $2.60 billion as Hormuz keeps Gulf cargo off the berth

India spent $2.60 billion on petroleum products from the United States in April-June, 254 percent more than a year earlier, according to government trade data released at the start of September. Almost all of that line is liquefied petroleum gas, the propane and butane that fill cooking cylinders. In the same quarter India cut U.S. crude purchases 57.5 percent, from $3.70 billion to $1.57 billion.

The two numbers describe one shock. The Strait of Hormuz has been a war zone for six months. Gulf exporters who used to supply about 90 percent of India's LPG imports could not move cargo on the old timetable. India burns more than 33 million tonnes of LPG in a year and produces about 13.1 million. The gap is import. When the Gulf gap widened, New Delhi paid American prices to keep cylinders in kitchens.

The first-quarter comparison is blunt. Product imports from the U.S. were about $735 million in April-June 2025. They were $2.60 billion in April-June 2026. Kpler and government figures through the summer show the physical volumes behind the dollars. India imported roughly 1.49 million tonnes of U.S. LPG in the quarter to 31 May, against 0.09 million tonnes a year before. June was booked to clear more than one million tonnes from the U.S. for the first time in a single month, with preliminary Kpler numbers around 1.07 million tonnes from America plus smaller stems from the UAE, Iran, Kuwait and others.

The pain was sharpest in March and April. Total LPG imports fell from more than two million tonnes a month in January-February to about 1 to 1.2 million tonnes in March-May. Storage in India is thin. Shortages showed up quickly. By late summer the worst of the household scarcity had eased. Domestic plants raised output. Cargoes from Norway, Algeria and the United States filled what Qatar, the UAE and Saudi Arabia could not send on time.

Crude moved the other way. Refinery slates decide those cargoes, not household cylinders. U.S. crude is one barrel among many. When spreads and freight shift, buyers drop it. That is why the crude line from America shrank while the LPG line grew. Overall merchandise imports from the U.S. still rose 24 percent in the quarter, to $16.65 billion, because the gas bill more than offset the lost crude.

Refinery executives have been talking about locking more U.S. LPG for 2027, some of it under long-term contracts that could cover as much as 15 percent of demand at the three large state processors. Last year's plan to take 10 percent of LPG from America was partly a trade-political gesture. This year's voyages are inventory math.

The Hormuz file and the kitchen file are now the same file. Every new U.S. strike on Iranian radars, and every Iranian shot at a tanker, shows up weeks later as a freight rate and a cylinder schedule. India cannot reopen the strait. It can keep paying the Atlantic price until someone does.

The $2.60 billion quarter is the receipt. It is also a warning about concentration. A country that let one waterway feed 90 percent of an essential fuel has spent six months learning what the alternative costs. The alternative is longer, dearer and now large enough to change the bilateral trade ledger with Washington.