Mangaluru : Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Standing Committee Chairman Prahlad V Joshi said production of polypropylene in Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL) would help in saving foreign exchange.

He was addressing a press conference after flagging off the first dispatch of polypropylene produced in MRPL here on Thursday.

India is importing only 14 per cent of its need of the polypropylene every year and 86 per cent is being imported. MRPL, now the only producer of the product in South India and second in India after Bathinda of Punjab, can produce up to 15.3 lakh MT of polypropylene to meet the demand of South India. Use of vacuum, gas and oil instead of naptha is less costly, he said.

India should reduce the import of crude oil by 10 to 20 per cent by 2020. Now, the country is importing around 70 per cent of its crude oil needs, which means production is only 38 MT against import of 189 MMT. By 2030, country’s dependency on crude oil should reduce by 50 per cent.

MRPL Managing Director H Kumar said various steps will be taken to increase the gross production. He said physical deficit was huge in 2009- 10. The revenue of the country was Rs 11.60 lakh crore against spending of Rs 16.60 lakh crore. The average highway construction was only two to three kilo metres per day then, but now it has been increased to 12 km per day, he said.

MRPL Refinery Director M Venkatesh said though MRPL meets the best standards, there is scope for upgradation after new refineries. The bottom level upgradation may save up to Rs 2,000 to Rs 4,000 crore. Through the electrification of railway, there is possible to save up to one to two MT of crude oil.

The works on 1.5 MMT crude oil storage units and 2.5 MMT in Padoor in Udupi will complete by December, he said. On the first day, around 500 tonnes of the product was sold worth Rs 4 crore through nine dealers.