State-run energy major ONGC plans to tie up with French giant TotalEnergies for exploration and production of oil and gas in the Andaman islands, said Sushma Rawat, director, exploration at ONGC Ltd. In an interview, Rawat said that prospective hydrocarbon blocks are expected to be auctioned at the next round of auctions under the Open Acreage Licensing Programme for which both companies may bid as a joint venture.
“For deepwater, talks are underway with Total. Andamans, which is coming up, is mostly deepwater. The government has an Island Exploration Project, a lot of seismic data is being acquired in the Andamans which will be processed and analysed. Within a month we will know whether Total would be coming there with us and in what way. With Total we still have to sign an MoU. The talks are in the final stages,” she added.