State-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) said on Monday that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with French multinational TotalEnergies to establish a holistic framework for the exchange of each other’s technical strengths in deep-water offshore, especially in the Mahanadi and Andamans.

This strategic, technology-driven collaboration will develop future cooperation for potential business in the deep waters of the Bay of Bengal for mutually aligned purposes, the oil and gas exploration and production (E&P) major tweeted.

“We will jointly evaluate exploration and development opportunities to create synergies with local economies,” ONGC Director (Exploration) Sushma Rawat said.

This collaboration shall lead to the deployment of best practices and technology offshore to reduce greenhouse emissions for sustainable development, she added.

Last month, the Maharatna company during the India Energy Week (IEW) 2023 said that it is in talks with global oil majors to infuse state of the art technologies in its aggressive exploration push in Deepwaters of India.

ONGC held discussions with the US oil and gas giant ExxonMobil, the Norwegian energy multinational Equinor, the US oil services conglomerate Baker Hughes, and the French research organisation Institut Français du Pétrole on various issues including technology and deep waters, it added.

Since FY20, ONGC, as a part of its exploration activity, has acquired 4,118 line km (LKM) of two-dimensional (2D) data and 18,519 sq km of three-dimensional (3D) seismic data. It has drilled 323 exploratory wells, which have established around 132.65 million tonnes (mt) of 2P (proven and probable) oil initially in-place (OIIP) reserves with 43.5 mt of estimated ultimate recovery (EUR).

The E&P giant has oil reserves in eight sedimentary basins, which have a total 2P (proven and probable) reserves of 326.87 MT as of April 2022.