The Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh today called for building strong partnerships with oil producing countries to meet India's growing energy demand. Inaugurating Petro tech-2010 in New Delhi, he asserted that government is encouraging oil companies to pursue equity oil and gas opportunities overseas. He said India needs adequate supply of energy at affordable prices and hydro carbons will continue to be our major source of energy for quite some time in future. Dwelling at length at the requirement of growing hydro carbaon through imports, the Prime Minister noted that their demand will increase by 40 percent in the next ten years. He added that the supply from the domestic oil fields is expected to be just twelve percent. Dr. Singh also sought close cooperation from the oil producing countries for effectively dealing with the problem of climate change. Speaking on the occasion, the Petroleum Minister Murli Deora said that 20 Indian ventures in Oil and Natural Gas are already in operation in different countries and discussions are on with other countries to have similar cooperation.Speaking on the sidelines of the Managing Director of the Iranian oil firm asked Indian companies for ONGC-Hinduja consortium to decide on the participation of 7.5 billion gas field in the Persian Gulf in a year's time. The two companies have been offerred 40 per cent stake in the development of the largest gas field there.On the sidelines of the conclave, Nagarjuna Oil Corporation Managing Director Rammohan said that the Company will commission its about seven thousand crore rupees worth Cuddalore Refinery in Tamil Nadu by end of the next year. He said, the refinery will start processing six million tonnes of crude oil from December next and will be fully operational by March 2012.Meanwhile, an empowered group of ministers led by the Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee may decide by next week on allocation of natural gas from fields manned by private companies. About 4000 delegates are participating in the conclave. They include delegations from Angola, Sudan and captains of the industry of several other countries. AIR correspondent reports, the biggest-ever exhibition which part of the Petro-Tech with more than 350 pavilions is attracting large crowds. This is the first eco-friendly Exhibition organised in collaboration with British Petroleum.