India Thursday called on major Asian oil producing and consuming countries to develop a regional oil and gas market, jointly set up strategic storages and promote mutual investments to ensure stability in supply.

"With a view to bringing about greater stability in Asian trade in petroleum and petroleum products, can we think in terms of an Asian market?" India's Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar asked at the first 'Roundable of ministers on regional cooperation in the Asian oil economy'.

Co-hosted by the International Energy Forum (IEF) and Kuwait, the roundtable has ministerial representations from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Oman, Qatar, Iran, Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, China and host India.

Also represented at the daylong meet are Indonesia, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and the International Energy Agency (IEA).

The meet is aimed at ensuring security, stability and sustainability of oil and gas supplies and promoting economic development through regional inter-dependence.

"It is Asia from Eastern Siberia through the Caspian, Central Asia and China to Southeast Asia and, to some extent, even South Asia and, of course, above all Iran and West Asia that is booming in both the output and throughput of oil," said Aiyar.

"Yet Asia has little in terms of a global market. And even less in terms of a well prepared oil and oil products market," he added.

To ensure greater stability and prevent a repeat of the roller-coaster price turbulence of last year, Aiyar urged the oil producing countries to consider longer term contracts for petroleum and petroleum products.

He urged greater transparency in formulae for pricing of long term contracts, larger share of spot purchases in market transactions, establishment of petroleum exchanges and integration of derivatives into market practice.

Where, in short, an Asian market emerges, thus doing away with the practices of pegging Asian supplies to Western markets like Brent and Western Texas Intermediate (WTI), reflecting the fact that two-thirds of the Asian oil production is utilised within the region, the minister pointed out.

For ensuring stability in supply and uninterrupted flow of oil revenue, Aiyar suggested: "We should consider jointly building storages which would enable consumers to enjoy an uninterrupted flow of supplies and producers to enjoy an uninterrupted flow of oil revenues till normalcy is restored."

To ensure security through mutual interdependence, Aiyar called on Asian countries to invest in countries within the region instead of continuing to be dependent on Western countries.

The estimated $1.58 trillion investment requirement over the next 25 years in the oil sector both for exploration and refining could be generated within the region, Aiyar said.

Citing Iran's investment in the Chennai Petroluem Refining Corporation and Qatar's investment in Petronet LNG, which set up India's first LNG terminal at Dahej in Gujarat, Aiyar said more such reciprocal investments could be explored within the Asian region to build interdependence.

On the third theme of sustainability, Aiyar stressed the need to share technology and expertise between Asian countries and emulate the example of Japan in the judicious use of energy sources for conserving depleting resources.