Over the weekend of March 21–22, 2026, two vessels arrived at New Mangalore Port (NMPA) carrying energy cargo that India urgently needed.
The first was Aqua Titan, a crude oil tanker that delivered 96,099 tonnes of Russian crude oil, originally loaded from a Baltic Sea port in late January.
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The cargo is being unloaded through an offshore pipeline connected to a Single Mooring Point approximately 12 nautical miles from the shore, supplying the Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL), which chartered the vessel.
The second vessel was Pyxis Pioneer, an LPG tanker sailing under the Singapore flag, which departed the Port of Nederland in Texas, US, on February 14 and delivered 16,714 tonnes of Liquefied Petroleum Gas for discharge to Aegis Logistics Ltd. The vessel is expected to sail out by Monday morning.
The Middle East conflict, now in its fourth week, has disrupted traditional energy supply routes and triggered panic buying of LPG cylinders across parts of India, though the Ministry of Petroleum reported on Thursday that panic bookings had eased to 55 lakh LPG cylinder bookings per day, with officials stating that no outlets are running dry.
New Mangalore Port houses India's largest underground LPG storage facility, commissioned in September 2025, with a capacity of 80,000 tonnes, located 225 metres below sea level.
The port also waived cargo-related charges for crude oil and LPG handling from March 14 to March 31, a measure designed to incentivise imports and maximise throughput in the final stretch of the financial year.
Two Indian LPG carriers, MT Shivalik and MT Nanda Devi, had earlier crossed the Strait of Hormuz safely on March 16 and 17, carrying approximately 92,712 metric tonnes of LPG between them. A third vessel, LPG tanker Apollo Ocean, is expected to arrive at New Mangalore Port on March 25 carrying 26,687 tonnes of LPG for Indian Oil Corporation and Bharat Petroleum.
