India’s state-controlled Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has signed an agreement with French giant TotalEnergies to work together on deep-water exploration off India’s east coast.

ONGC said in a social media post on Monday it has signed a memorandum of understanding with TotalEnergies “to establish a holistic framework between the two for exchange of each other’s technical strengths in deep-water offshore, especially Mahanadi and Andaman”.

ONGC director of exploration Sushma Rawat noted the two companies “will jointly evaluate exploration and development opportunities to create synergies with local economies”.