Oil buyers, sellers to meet in India in January

India will host an international oil buyers and sellers conference in New Delhi on January 6 to discuss stability, security and sustainability of oil supplies, the Press Trust of India reported Thursday.

Seven oil producers - Kuwait (which is co-hosting the meet), Saudi Arabia, Iran, Qatar, Oman, UAE, Malaysia and Indonesia and four principal buyers in Asia - India, China, Korea and Japan would be face to face to discuss the "three Ss - stability, security and sustainability of oil supplies," India Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar told reporters here.

"We will be discussing all the dimensions of oil economy -- from marketing issues to investment issues to research and development issues to environmental issues," he said.

The buyers and sellers conference is an attempt by India to bring about a consensus among the key Asian oil producers and buyers for creating a different price benchmark than from the prevailing benchmarks based out of London and New York.

"We want to see if we can evolve an Asian oil products market that could service as marker for the markets such as India," he said. (*)