China and India signed five memoranda on energy cooperation Thursday.

Future exchanges will be on "a full spectrum", said the Indian Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar in Beijing Thursday evening.

Aiyar is visiting China as guest of Ma Kai, minister in charge of the Chinese National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). He is accompanied by a batch of major Indian petroleum firms.

According to NDRC, the Indian delegation met with major China players Thursday, including China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), China Petrochemical Corporation (SINOPEC), and China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC).

Aiyar said China and India have agreed to strengthen the exchange of information when bidding for oil resources in a third country in order to realize mutual benefit.

China and India last month won a joint bid to buy Petro-Canada's 37 percent stake in Syrian oilfields, marking the first cooperation in bidding for overseas oil resources.

"Unbridled rivalry between Indian and Chinese companies is only to the advantage of the seller," said Aiyar.

Aiyar said that the memoranda, of which four are commercial, cover a full scope of areas, including upstream exploration and refining in the oil sector, the laying of national and trans-national oil and gas pipelines, frontier and cutting-edge research and development, as well as a joint energy efficiency program.

The two countries will also tap potential for working together on bio-fuels, such as vegetable oils blending with diesel and ethanol blending with gasoline.

A working group will be established soon, said Aiyar. The group will meet at least once a year to keep track of the cooperation.

This year is dubbed as the "Year of Friendship between China and India".

Source: Xinhua