India will strengthen its cooperation with China on seven areas in energy, said visiting Indian Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar in Beijing on Thursday.

The two countries signed five memoranda on energy cooperation the same day. Mr. Aiyar arrived in Beijing on Jan. 10 for a three-day visit to China.

According to Mr. Aiyar, the full spectrum cooperation will firstly involve in upstream exploration and production, building joint ventures on seismic warning and oil and gas exploration. Secondly, there will be cooperation on prospecting and petrochemical production and marketing. The third area is the transmission of gas and urban gas supply.

The two sides will also joint hands on domestic and cross-border oil pipelines, unconventional oil and gas resources, the innovation and development of energy technologies, and software and information technology in energy sector.

Mr. Aiyar said China plays an important role in promoting cooperation in energy and energy security among Asian countries. He also stressed the great potential of collaboration on bio-energy between China and India.

Mr. Aiyar's visit to China has been in the spotlight of the Chinese media. Insiders in the energy industry regard his visit as an implication of India's interest in strengthening cooperation with China. 76 percent of India's oil depends on imports and India's total imports are largely oil.

India lost biddings to its Chinese competitor CNPC for some overseas oil sources in 2005, including the competition for PetroKazakhstan last October. India then began to seek for cooperation with China on energy. India's Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) jointed hands with China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) won the bid for Petro-Canada's stakes in Al-Furat Petroleum Company in Syria at the end of last year.