New Delhi: India’s energy supply chain has come under severe pressure amid the ongoing United States (US)-Israel joint strikes against Iran, which has blocked access to shipping routes passing through the Strait of Hormuz. There are reports of disruptions to oil and gas flows, which are showing up in India’s import data and domestic shortages.The Mint reported on Tuesday (March 31) that a scarcity of LPG cylinders has affected engineering, management and medical colleges, forcing institutions to shift to online classes, use diesel burners and induction cooktops, or rely on food delivery platforms. The newspaper linked the crisis to the blockade of Hormuz, a chokepoint through which nearly 90% of India’s LPG imports pass.India sources about 60% of its cooking gas from overseas, the Mint said in an earlier report in March. At the time, Sujata Sharma, a joint secretary in the oil and gas ministry, had said the disruption at Hormuz was a “matter of some concern”.With supplies tightening further since then, commercial kitchens and those on educational campuses are being deprioritised relative to household consumption. The business paper pointed out that disruptions to LPG supply chains have had visible downstream effects, such as halted kitchen operations at Maharishi Markandeshwar University in Mullana, Ambala, which shut on March 13 with only medical students allowed on campus. Other campuses have remained open by absorbing higher fuel costs, modifying menus and reducing gas-intensive cooking.Also read: ‘Cannot Sleep From the Tension’: the LPG Crisis is Breaking the Back of Delhi’s Small EateriesData cited by economist Deepanshu Mohan in the Hindu showed that food delivery workers reported a 50-60% decline in orders amid the disruption. Mohan also wrote that with imports meeting more than four-fifths of Indian crude oil needs, the economy was vulnerable to external shocks transmitted through energy prices, worsened by frozen shipping routes and commodity market volatility. It pointed out that imported energy shocks raise transport costs and compress household spending, while exposing the fisc to oil price volatility.India imports around 85-87% of its crude oil, making it immediately vulnerable to external energy shocks. India also consumes about 31.3 million tonnes of LPG annually. As much as 87% of this is in household kitchens, and the rest in hotels and restaurants, Economic Times said in an earlier report on the expected disruptions due to the war.According to Mohan, increases in crude prices raise inflation by roughly 0.2 percentage points, widen the current account deficit by USD 9-10 billion, or 0.4% of GDP, and reduce GDP growth by nearly 0.5 percentage points. The paper also highlighted that oil shocks increase LPG subsidy requirements, raise transport and logistics costs and elevate retail inflation.The Financial Express, another economy-focussed newspaper, reported that India’s LPG imports fell over 45% month-on-month to around 1.12 million tonnes in March 2026. The imports were nearly 2.04 million tonnes in February, according to Kpler data cited by the paper.It also said the drop followed disruptions to shipping routes through the Strait of Hormuz.Here is a ground report by The Wire on the impact this war is having on the Indian public, especially the underprivileged. Meanwhile, Press Trust of India (PTI) reported on March 31 that India’s first Iranian crude cargo since 2019 is headed to Vadinar in Gujarat with 6,00,000 barrels of crude. The shipment follows a US decision to grant a 30-day window for Iranian oil on the water. According to PTI, Indian refiners have been seeking to purchase Iranian oil cargoes amid tightening inventories.PTI said Iran had accounted for 11.5% of India’s total crude imports at its peak and that India had imported 5,18,000 barrels per day in 2018 before volumes declined after sanctions imposed by the US on imports from the country. The US had given India and a few other countries a six-month waiver from the Iranian sanctions in 2018-19, during which period India’s crude imports from the country grew significantly month-on-month, though there was a year-on-year decline even at the time.Earlier this year, the US barred India and other countries from importing Russian oil, lowering India’s oil trade with the country 44% by January, wrote T.C.A. Sharad Raghavan in the Hindu newspaper eary in March.The Wall Street Journal reported on March 30 that the conflict threatens to disrupt India’s econpmy on “multiple fronts”. It reported separately the same day that global supplies of helium are at risk as well. The natural gas byproduct is essential for the medical diagnostic industry as well as for Artificial Intelligence development, the report said, citing disruptions to Qatar’s liquefied natural gas shipments have curtailed helium production.Reports note that Qatar accounts for about one-third of global helium supply, with Reuters marking an escalation in the price earlier in March. Supply constraints have doubled helium prices in some cases, the Wall Street Journal said, and triggered force majeure declarations by industrial gas suppliers (such as Airgas, a major US producer).On Monday, in a latest signal of the confusion sown by the conflict, the Union government rolled back a sharp increase in aviation turbine fuel prices, citing consumer price concerns.