Sabine Pass LNG in Cameron, Louisiana, US, Tuesday, April 14, 2026. US natural gas futures ended lower for a fifth straight session, erasing earlier gains as traders weighed falling oil prices against a mixed weather forecast.
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The United States emerged as the top supplier of liquefied natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas to India in May, as shipments from the Gulf countries fell due to traffic disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz.
India imports 60% of its liquefied natural gas (LNG) and all of its liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) through the vital waterway, which has been disrupted since the US and Israel first attacked Iran in Feb. 28.
Washington supplied 630,000 tons of LPG to India in May, about 60 percent more than the 380,000 tons the country received from all Gulf countries combined, according to information from Kpler.
The United States exported 900,000 tons of LNG to India in May, accounting for more than 40% of India’s total demand and a threefold increase in April, Kpler said.
Experts say the conflict in the Middle East has increased US exports, but they add that this increase is due to a wider push by Washington to sell India more American energy. Even before the war, the two countries were deepening their energy trade.
“Going forward, India-US energy trade will be more focused on gas,” Sumit Ritolia, lead research analyst at energy intelligence firm Kpler, told CNBC.
The US, “with its abundant shale resources and expanding export infrastructure,” is uniquely positioned to benefit from India’s need to diversify gas supplies, he added.
The US is gaining market share
High transportation costs helped prevent the US from gaining a meaningful share of the Indian gas market before the war. But the Gulf cutoff made India more open to American gas supplies.
The Middle East’s LPG supply “has been competitive with US commodities at a lower price,” which has pressured the US’s ability to gain market share in India, Manish Sejwal, senior vice president of commodity markets, natural gas liquids/LPG and naphtha, at Rystad Energy, told CNBC in an email.
Sejwal added that by the end of June, US LPG supply to India is likely to cross the 1 million tonne mark.
LPG is mainly used as cooking fuel in India. Its supply and pricing are politically sensitive and authorities have sought to protect domestic consumers from rising global prices.
According to a report by global brokerage Nomura on Wednesday, the US is “making the most” of the Indian gas shift. The report said Washington’s exports to New Delhi had increased eightfold from pre-war levels.
Bineet Banka, Nomura’s India energy equity research analyst, told CNBC that Washington wants India to reduce its trade surplus with the US, “and higher energy purchases may be the best way to do that.”
Importing LNG from the US is more expensive than from the Gulf but “India doesn’t have many options,” Banka added.
Since the start of the Iran war, India’s currency has weakened against the dollar, partly due to the country’s rising energy debt. India is the world’s third largest importer of crude, fourth largest importer of LNG, and second largest importer of LPG.
