Argentina shipped 50,000 tonnes of LPG to India in the first quarter of 2026, more than double the 22,000 tonnes dispatched in all of 2025, according to Vortexa, the energy data and analytics firm. The numbers confirm that a new bilateral energy corridor was already operating at scale before the Strait of Hormuz was closed to commercial traffic.
The shipment timeline is telling: roughly 39,000 of those tonnes left Bahía Blanca, Buenos Aires province (Argentina's main industrial port and hub of its petrochemical and NGL export complex), before February 28, when U.S. and Israeli forces launched military operations against Iran and Hormuz transit was disrupted. The remaining 11,000 tonnes were loaded on March 5, with the conflict already active.
Argus, the energy price reporting agency, notes the cargoes were most likely contracted before the war, given that Argentina typically sells LPG on a 15-to-45-day forward basis. India did not buy Argentine LPG because it had no alternative. It had already decided to buy it.
A Deepening Bilateral Energy Partnership
The 50,000 tonnes are the most visible layer of a bilateral relationship under construction. India and Argentina recorded bilateral trade of $6.34 billion between January and November 2025, with India ranking as Argentina's fifth-largest trading partner.
The energy dimension has multiple layers: collaboration agreements between ONGC Videsh, ONGC's international investment arm, and YPF, Argentina's state-controlled oil and gas company; the presence of Khanij Bidesh India Ltd. (KABIL), India's state-owned mineral resources company, exploring lithium blocks in Argentina; and the Argentina LNG project, a phased LNG export initiative led by YPF in partnership with ENI, the Italian energy company, and XRG, ADNOC's international investment arm, with India among its natural target markets for future LNG production from Vaca Muerta, one of the world's largest shale plays, located in Argentina's Neuquén Basin.
Horacio Marín, YPF's president and CEO, visited India twice in 2025 and met with Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Puri on multiple occasions, according to Argentine Ambassador to New Delhi Mariano Agustín Cousiño.
"Argentina has significant gas reserves," Cousiño said. "The president of our national oil and gas company visited the country twice last year and met with Minister Puri on several occasions," he added.
The Infrastructure That Created the Corridor
Before 2024, Argentina had not shipped a single tonne of LPG to India, according to Vortexa. The corridor is new, and its opening is explained by infrastructure, not geopolitics.
The specific trigger was the commissioning of Compañía Mega's new fractionation train at its Bahía Blanca fractionation plant in January 2026. Compañía Mega processes approximately 40% of the Neuquén Basin's gas output and is Argentina's largest NGL processor and exporter. Construction began in November 2023 and lifted C3+ production capacity — propane, butane, and natural gasoline — to approximately 5,600 tonnes per day. That increment, with no additional domestic outlet, created the first exportable surplus available for South Asian buyers.
Mega is the only operator in Argentina with a dedicated NGL liquids pipeline, running approximately 600 kilometres from the Neuquén Basin to the port of Bahía Blanca. Its shareholders are YPF (38%), Petrobras, Brazil's state energy company (34%), and Dow, the U.S. chemicals company (28%).
Second Phase: Mega's $360 Million RIGI Filing
The new fractionation train is only the first phase of a three-stage expansion. On March 18, 2026, Compañía Mega filed for Argentina's Large Investment Incentive Regime (RIGI) on a $360 million tranche within a comprehensive 2023–2028 investment plan totalling $650 million.
The expansion will add more than 500,000 additional tonnes per year of natural gas liquids, a 27% increase in the company's total output. Of the incremental volume, 80% is earmarked for export, primarily LPG and natural gasoline, and 20% for the domestic market as ethane for petrochemical feedstock. Once the works are complete, Mega's total capacity will exceed 2.5 million tonnes per year.
"The new investment plan reaffirms the strength of our strategy and the commitment of our shareholders," said Tomás Córdoba, the company's CEO. "It allows us to expand key infrastructure to convert Vaca Muerta's potential into concrete energy development and foreign currency earnings," he added.
The works span four provinces: new pumping stations in General Roca, Río Negro province, and La Adela, La Pampa province; conditioning facilities at the Loma La Lata gas processing plant, one of Argentina's principal NGL separation facilities in the Neuquén Basin; and upgrades at the Bahía Blanca fractionation complex.
Third Phase: TGS's $3 Billion NGL Project
The third phase belongs to Transportadora de Gas del Sur (TGS), Argentina's main southern gas pipeline operator, which announced its NGLs Project at Bank of America's Argentina Week, an annual investor forum focused on Argentina's energy and macroeconomic outlook, in New York in March 2026.
The initiative is Argentina's largest NGL processing project on record. The estimated investment is $3 billion and encompasses the expansion of TGS's plant in Tratayén, Neuquén province; the construction of a 573-kilometre liquids pipeline to Bahía Blanca; a fractionation plant with 2.7 million tonnes per year of capacity; and a new export terminal at the Bahía Blanca petrochemical complex.
TGS projects additional exports of more than $1.2 billion per year, with mixed financing through project loans, bond issuances, and export credit facilities. The initiative is also seeking RIGI status and is advancing toward its final investment decision (FID).
India's Structural LPG Vulnerability
India imports approximately 62–65% of its LPG consumption, and more than 90% of those imports previously arrived from the Persian Gulf via the Strait of Hormuz, according to data from India's Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC), a government body under the Ministry of Petroleum that tracks LPG supply, demand, and storage data, as cited by Business Standard, an Indian financial daily.
The scale is significant: in January 2026, domestic production reached 1.16 million tonnes against imports of 2.19 million tonnes required to meet demand. The country has more than 320 million active LPG consumers.
When the conflict disrupted Hormuz transit, Indian LPG imports fell to approximately 1.1–1.2 million tonnes in March, a decline of more than 45%. The structural vulnerability runs deeper still: India's total LPG storage capacity stands at approximately 1.2 million tonnes, barely 15 days of national demand, and bottling plants maintain limited operational stock, according to the PPAC LPG profile report.
On March 8, the Indian government directed refineries and petrochemical complexes to maximize LPG output by redirecting propane, butane, propylene, and butene streams. The following day it invoked the Essential Commodities Act, a law that empowers the government to regulate the supply and distribution of designated essential goods, to issue a Natural Gas Control Order. Domestic production rose by approximately 25%.
The LPG shipments departing Bahía Blanca now represent the first concrete evidence of supply diversification for India, via Atlantic export routes that bypass the Strait of Hormuz and the Suez Canal. Whether that trajectory extends beyond the crisis will depend on how quickly Mega and TGS bring additional capacity online. If both projects reach their stated timelines, what in 2026 amounts to 50,000 tonnes could grow into a supply corridor capable of addressing a meaningful share of India's structural LPG deficit. The Strait of Hormuz accelerated the timeline. Vaca Muerta makes the volume possible.