Phoenix International imarkets December 28, according to the shipping data of Thomson Reuters, the LPG shipped to India will reach 2.4 million tons in December, surpassing China's 2.3 million tons of imports for the first time.

India is expected to overtake China this month and becomes the world's largest importer of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), British media said. Because India has promoted residents to use liquefied petroleum gas instead of firewood and livestock manure during cooking.

The report said that in the effort of India's plan which brings energy into families, India's buying of liquefied petroleum gas has surged from just 1 million tons a month in early 2015.

"The growth in India is surprising. The number of LPG households that enjoyed the subsidy in 2015 was 140 million, now 181 million, and the rate of growth was amazing, " Ted Young told Reuters.

The United States company, Dorian, has 22 carriers, one of the world's largest liquefied petroleum gas carriers.

LPG is a mixture of propane and butane, used in cooking, transportation and petrochemical industries. The global market size of LPG is similar to that of liquefied natural gas (LNG), with a transaction of about 3 million tons a year. However, compared with the market size of over 40 billion tons of crude oil per year, liquefied petroleum gas and liquefied natural gas appear to be dwarfed.

The average monthly import volume of LPG in India in 2017 is about 1 million 700 thousand tons, much lower than that of China's 2.2 million tons, but it is about 1 million tons higher than that of Japan which is ranked third.

In a presentation this month, Dorian said it expected India's liquefied petroleum gas imports to continue to rise, because of the increased use of LPG by cars after taxes on gasoline in the country.

China, India and Japan have taken up a total of about 45% of the global LPG procurement.

The Middle East is India's largest source of supply and has so far enjoyed a substantial supply monopoly.

But as U.S. shale oil drilling has surged, U.S. LPG exports have begun to appear in India. Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is a by-product of crude oil and natural gas production in shale oil drilling.

According to Thomson Reuters Eikon, the US has regularly exported liquefied petroleum gas to India, starting at the start of 2017, from about 50,000 to 100,000 tons a month, to more than 200,000 tons by December.

Although this is only a tenth of the size of the Middle East's exports, US liquefied petroleum gas is becoming more competitive.

The propane offer at the Montebellevue export center in Texas, it costs 99 cents a gallon ($516 a tonne) after freight charges. The current Saudi contract price is $590 a tonne after freight.

Us suppliers have made a big push into Japan and are now able to meet half of Japan's demand.