French oil giant TotalFinaElf has offered Oil and Natural Gas Corporation stake in its Azerbaijan and Barbados oil blocks in return of equity in the Indian oil firms' three offshore blocks.

Total wants 20 to 40 per cent stake of ONGC in blocks GS-OSN-2001/1 (in Gujarat Saurasthra offshore basin), CY-DWN-2001/1 (in Kaveri basin) and GK-DW-1 (in Gujarat Kutch basin). In return, Total has offered blocks in Absheron in Azerbaijan and Barbados.

"The board of ONGC considered Total's proposal at its meeting on Thursday and decided to enter into a memorandum of cooperation for deepwater exploration," company sources said in New Delhi.

The MoC, however, covers in general manner the areas of cooperation without identifying the specific blocks.

"We need time to study the offer in detail before we decide to farm-in Total in our blocks," they said.

Total also wants to bid with ONGC for "good" blocks on offer in the fourth round of bidding for oil and gas blocks under NELP. The two firms are exploring joint participation on mutually beneficial terms.

In blocks GK-DW-1 and GS-OSN-2001/1, ONGC holds 100 per cent interest, whereas in block CY-DWN-2001/1 it has 80 per cent with remaining 20 per cent being held by Oil India Ltd.

The MoC covers intellectual knowledge sharing in areas where parties are in a position to complement each other; swapping of information and collaboration in acreages presenting similar exploration potential and risk factor; collaboration and sharing of expertise in ONGC's deepwater acreages and adjacent area; and collaboration in future opportunities.