"The minister's briefing will cover all contours," said the official. He declined to elaborate. Aiyar is leading a high-level Indian delegation, comprising senior government officials and oil company executives, to Beijing later Tuesday in a bid to foster closer energy ties between the two countries. The topics likely to be discussed during Aiyar's visit include the possibility of joint bids between Indian firms and Chinese state-run energy companies for oil and natural gas assets in Russia, the Commonwealth of Independent States, Africa and Latin America. GAIL India Ltd. (532155.BY), a state-run natural gas transmission utility, is expected to sign two memorandums of understanding this week with two Chinese energy majors for oil and natural gas exploration and gas transportation, Proshanto Banerjee, the company's chairman said last week. Banerjee is part of the official Indian delegation to China. "We are going to sign MoUs with Sinopec and CNOOC," Banerjee said. He added that there is also a possibility of GAIL signing an MoU with Beijing Gas, a city gas distribution company. Over the past few years, India and China have been aggressively competing with each other for a slice of overseas oil and gas assets, in an effort to enhance their respective energy reserves. However, last month, a joint venture between India's Oil & Natural Gas Corp. (500312.BY) and state-run China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC.YY), successfully bid for the stake of Petro-Canada (PCZ) in an oil field in Syria, raising hopes for a greater joint cooperation in energy projects between two countries in the years ahead. Both India and China are heavily dependent on crude oil imports to meet the growing requirements of their expanding economies. India imports 76% of the crude oil it processes. Crude is the biggest item on the country's import list. Indian exploration companies, mainly ONGC Videsh Ltd., the overseas exploration arm of state-run ONGC, are scouring for opportunities overseas to help meet the insatiable domestic appetite for oil products. ONGC Videsh has stakes in exploration ventures in 17 oil and gas properties in 13 countries, to supplement India's locally produced oil and gas output. India's overall crude oil production has stagnated around 33.3 million tons a year over the past three years, while its gas output of about 83 million cubic meters a day meets only around 60% of domestic demand. The domestic consumption of petroleum products in India is estimated to be around 115 million tons a year. PIN/ DOW JONES