00:00Liquefied petroleum gas used as cooking gas or fuel is the minnow in the context of the
00:05world's vast energy markets.
00:07Yet, for millions across Asia and Africa, brightly coloured LPG cylinders are used daily
00:13in kitchens, stalls and workshops.
00:16It has become a microcosm for a historic energy shock when strikes began in the Persian Gulf.
00:22Take India, for example, which imports nearly two-thirds of the LPG it consumes.
00:27Traditionally, it relied on the Middle East for the lion's share of that.
00:31With the Strait of Hormuz effectively choked off, it had to turn to other supply options.
00:36We recently watched the Clipper Vanguard discharge, a cargo of US LPG at Haldia, a giant import
00:43facility in the Bay of Bengal.
00:44It was its first trip to India in nine years of service, and the shipment took 48 days,
00:49roughly seven times longer than the usual journey from the Persian Gulf, with freight potentially
00:54costing 30% more.
00:55Other levers included reconfiguring refineries to boost domestic LPG production, even at the
01:02cost of cutting production and exports of feedstock, which drove up prices elsewhere.
01:08And as importantly, demand tumbled.
01:11India's industrial users absorbed much of the pain.
01:14They paid up for other fuels, cut back or closed down.
01:18That cost is still ripping through.
01:20The dramatic fist fights and the thefts of the early days may have disappeared from headlines.
01:25The energy crisis, however, will linger for longer.
01:28India's industrialnaden
01:28Is becoming nuclear to the general housing sickness?
01:28Asia
01:29India's industrial power
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