February 7, 2016
PARADEEP: Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants India to cut down on its oil
imports by 10 per cent by 2022, by 2022 because the year marks 75 years of
India's independence.
"We want to minimise our imports of crude oil. By 2022, we should aim at 10 per
cent cut in imports as we will be celebrating the 75th year of the country's
independence. I took a meeting with the oil ministry officials and impressed upon
them on the need to cut oil imports", Modi said while dedicating the Indian Oil
Corporation oil refinery here on Saturday.
India imported 189.43 million tonne of crude oil in 2014-15 for Rs 6.87 lakh crore.
In the current financial year also the imports will be same as last year.
Modi proposed blending of petroleum with the biofuel ethanol and use of jatropha
oil as an alternative fuel.
The foundation of the Paradeep refinery was laid by the then prime minister Atal
Behari Vajpayee in 2002. The Rs 35,000-crore refinery will produce 50 million litres
of petrol, 66 million litres of diesel, 25 million litres of kerosene and aviaton
turbine fuel (ATF) and 12 million quintals of petroleum coke.
Lakhs of people will get employment, he said, but also added, in addition to the
public and private sectors a ‘personal' sector should also be nurtured. He said the
refinery will provide LPG cylinders to crores of poor women. A fertiliser factory will
also be set up in Paradip soon.
Modi called the refinery the ‘light of progress’ for Odisha and the country.
