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Asian, Middle East energy ministers meet today

Long-term supply contracts expected

Pallab Bhattacharya, New Delhi
The search for a cushion against volatile crude oil prices will be on top of the agenda when energy ministers of Asia's biggest econo-i.jnlegyltji^B^^y^th^ie^ifioun-, .jerpaxts from powerful oil-producing countries in the Middle East.
Another subject likely to come up before the iwo-day roundtable is creation of an Asian oil market and a pricing benchmark tailored to the region's requirements, officialsources here said yesterday.
India is expected to push for a five-year term supply contracts with countries like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iran, Oman and Qatar instead of the existing.practice of annual contracts as one of the key methods to check sharp rise in international crude oil price, they said.
The meeting will deliberate on the idea of developing a joint emergency response mechanism to guard against crude oil supply disruption in order to ensure
sustainability of oil flow.
India hopes, longer-term contracts with Saudi Arabia and Kuwait would provide demand assurance to oil producing countries,anti uninterrupted, supply to consumercopntries..1. , .
Volatility of etude oil prices last ’ year caused a lot of headache to the Indian government and dented thecountry's coffers.
Today's roundtable is part of Indian Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar's energy diplomacy to secure not only national energy security but that of the Asian region.
In the face of escalating crude prices, the Congress-led UPA government was forced to go for a hike of petroleum products inviting criticism of it's crucial ally the Left parties and other quarters and fuelled fears of inflationary pressures.
India, along with China, Japan, Malaysia and South Korea, is among the major crude buyers in Asia and spent $18.36 billion in 2003-'04 to import 90.83 tonnes of crude oil. Nearly 70 percent of
India's crude oil requirement is met through imports and this is projected to rise to 85 percent by the year2025.
The country's domestic pro-..duction, i? offipi^lly^prpjected.rga,,, .'grow^from 33 millipn,,
■’ tonnes to 50 million tonnes during the same period and the demand for petroleum products is likely to outpace incremental output, leaving India's self-sufficiency ratio to 15 percent.
Today's roundtable will be attended by oil ministers from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Iran, Oman, the UAE and Malaysia representing the producing countries and their counterparts from China, Japan, South Korea besides India as also Opec Secretariat, International Energy Forum and International Energy Agency.
Aiyar for the first time put forward the idea for such a conference when he had attended a meeting of OPEC oil ministers hi Vienna last year. In the run up to that meet, Aiyar had separate meetings with energy ministers of the oil producingcountries.