Oil India (OIL) is in talks with French supermajor TotalEnergies for collaborating on exploration projects offshore India, ahead of OIL’s plans to launch a promising exploration campaign in the Andaman basin.

The company is looking to bid aggressively under the next open acreage licensing policy (OALP) bidding rounds wherein offshore blocks are expected to go under the hammer.

“We have held discussions with TotalEnergies and are now framing the memorandum of understanding on whether they want to come on board as a technical partner or if they are interested to be a participating interest partner,” OilIndia executive said.

The company is also in discussion with other international oil companies, including PTT Exploration and Production Public Company in Thailand, Malaysian state-owned oil and gas company Petronas, and Vietnamese state-owned oil company Petrovietnam, for exploration of offshore blocks.

“We are actually talking to various international partners. Many are interested. We are talking with TotalEnergies, PTTEP because they are in proximity, and Petronas. We have initiated a discussion with Petrovietnam,” the person said. The company has signed an MoU with PTTEP. “They (PTTEP) have come and seen our data, and so have Petronas that has shown interest,” the official said.

Oil India has already signed a non-disclosure agreement with Petronas and is going into the MoU stage, as per the source.