New Delhi [India], November 19 (ANI): Oil India Limited (OIL) and TotalEnergies inked a 'Technology Service Agreement' on Wednesday here in the national capital to strengthen strategic collaboration for exploration activities in deep and ultra-deepwater offshore frontiers of Indian sedimentary basins, including the stratigraphic wells as mandated by the Indian government.

The agreement puts in place a framework to leverage TotalEnergies' world-class expertise in Deep and Ultradeep water exploration value chain across OIL's current and future Offshore portfolio, Oil India informed stock exchanges in a filing.

'It includes the ongoing appraisal programme of gas find in the shallow Offshore Blocks in Andaman Basin, exploration in OIL's OALP-IX Ultradeep water Blocks in Mahanadi & KrishnaGodavari Basins,' it noted.

It also covers evaluation of opportunities under ongoing OALP X / future bid rounds and provide support during stratigraphic well drilling initiative in offshore Category-II & III Basins.

Today's Agreement was signed in the presence of Pankaj Jain, Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and joined by Additional Secretary, Praveen Mal Khanooja, and Ranjit Rath, Chairman and Managing Director, OIL.

The Agreement was signed by Sangkaran Ratnam, CMD, TotalEnergies Gas and Power Projects India Private Ltd. and Saloma Yomdo, Director (E&D), OIL in presence of the dignitaries and the senior officials of TotalEnergies and OIL.

'The strategic collaboration marks a significant milestone in OIL's commitment to pursue exploration in offshore frontiers towards possible hydrocarbon discovery and secure sustainable energy future for India,' Oil India added.

India is putting in all kinds of effort to ramp up its own traditional fossil-based energy production, and the latest push is to dig deep in the Andaman region.

Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister, Hardeep Puri, had earlier this year asserted that the exploration in the Andamans is pointing to 'good news' and may end up becoming India's 'Guyana moment'. He had noted that a large expanse of sea beds untapped and unexplored.

As per estimates, India today imports 80 per cent of its oil and 50 per cent of its natural gas needs. India is now importing oil and gas from as many countries as possible to meet its demand. (ANI)