Incidentally, the Qatar minister for energy is also QGPC chairman.

Indianoil, which canalises the country's crude and petroleum products imports, will also buy a trial cargo each from Qatar land crude and Al Shaheen crude, before deciding on importing crude from Qatar on a term basis. According to an official release, the decision would depend on the results of the trial processing of the Qatar crudes.

On Friday the Qatar minister and Union petroleum minister Vazhapadhy K. Ramamurthy, issued a joint statement, spelling out areas of mutual cooperation in theenergy sector. Opportunities for establishing ``Indian participation in business ventures in Qatar'' in both exploration and production and refining oil and gas, was discussed.