Indian companies have to go global to ensure energy security for the country that imports 70 percent of its oil needs, a top petroleum ministry official said Friday.

An Indian company like ONGC Videsh, with activities in 10 countries, has already emerged as a global player and is slated to expand to more countries, Petroleum Secretary S.C. Tripathi said in Noida on the outskirts of the national capital.

"There are other companies also that will be getting prospects outside," Tripathi said, kicking off a golf tournament as part of Petrotech-2005, an oil and natural gas networking forum that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will inaugurate Sunday.

Organised by the Petrotech Society, a non-profit organisation of the oil and gas industry, under the aegis of the Indian petroleum ministry, the four-day Petrotech-2005 is expected to draw some 2,500 delegates and experts from India and abroad.

The event includes an exhibition at the sprawling Pragati Maidan exhibition grounds here, while the conference and thematic sessions are scheduled at Vigyan Bhavan and other venues.

Important participants include the chief executive of Saudi Aramco, Abdallah S Juma'h, Cairn Energy chief executive Bill Gammell and Ras Gas managing director Jerry J. Wolahans.

Oil and energy ministers of several countries like Sudan and Iran will also participate in the conference.

Tripathi said another state-run company, Indian Oil Corp, has sought oil assets in countries like Mauritius and Sri Lanka, and is seeking opportunities in several other countries.

"Energy is an essential input for development and since we do not possess energy resources, particularly of fossil fuel nature, we have to go out of India to secure these resources for us," Tripathi said.

India, which accounts for 15 percent of the global population, possesses less than 0.5 percent of global hydrocarbon reserves, according to official data.

On the coal front, the country is a little luckier, accounting for seven percent of the world reserves.

Coal bed methane and underground coal gasification may provide some relief to the energy problems of the nation, but acquiring equity resources in other countries seems to be the only option for hydrocarbons, officials said.