The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas is entrusted with the responsibility of exploration and production of oil and natural gas including import of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), and the refining, marketing, distribution, import, export and conservation of petroleum products. Considering the oil demand scenario vis-à-vis domestic production level, the Government is encouraging oil sector PSUs to venture abroad to access exploration blocks and oil producing properties for equity oil either on its own or through strategic alliances/joint ventures. India is a member of the International Energy Forum (IEF) which provides a platform for biennial meetings of the Ministers from the energy producing and consuming countries. This forum was earlier known as "Producer-Consumer Dialogue" between the oil producing and consuming countries. The permanent secretariat of the IEF is in Riyadh. The mission of the secretariat is to further strengthen and enhance the process of global dialogue on energy at the political level. Crude Oil and Natural Gas Production Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) and Oil India Limited (OIL), the two National Oil Companies (NOCs) and private and joint venture companies are engaged in the Exploration and Production (E&P) of oil and natural gas in the country. Crude oil production during 2005-06 was 32.190 MMT by ONGC, OIL and Private/joint venture companies. The natural gas production during the year 2005-06 was 32.202 BCM (Billion Cubic Metres) from ONGC, OIL and Private/joint venture companies. In the last five years, the Government has made concerted efforts for enhancing "Energy Security". The Tenth Five-Year Plan formulated there under represented a paradigm shift over earlier plans in as much as exploration areas were decided to be awarded through international competitive bidding in a deregulated scenario. Since 1991, Government of India has been inviting bids on a regular basis with several rounds of bidding carried out till operationalisation of New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP). After the operationalisation of NELP under the first five rounds (spanning 2000-2005), Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) for 110 blocks have been signed. Further the sixth round of the NELP (NELP-VI) was opened in February 2006 for International bidding by offering 55 exploration blocks, i.e., 25 Inland, 6 shallow offshore and 24 deep water blocks covering sedimentary area of about 3.52 lakh Sq. Km.