French oil major TotalFinaElf is keen on taking stake in state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation's deep-sea oil and gas blocks.

Senior officials of the French oil concern have already held at least one round of discussions with ONGC officials on the possibility of taking participatory interest in deepwater oil and gas blocks acquired by ONGC in the New Exploration Licensing Policy round and on nomination basis in Kutch and KG deepwater offshore, official sources said in New Delhi.

TotalFinaElf 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.

Senior ONGC officials, however, said no decision to farm-in TotalFinaElf in its deepwater blocks or for bidding together in NELP-IV has been taken as yet.

"We are not in search for partner with financial muscle. We need deepwater technology... joint collaboration on that ground is certainly welcome," they said.

Sources said Unocal of US and Cairn Energy Plc of UK too have desired to participate in ONGC's deepwater exploration campaign, which has been billed as the most aggressive campaign in the world by Statoil of Norway.

ONGC had won two deepwater blocks in Krishna Godavari basin and one in Mahanadi basin in NELP-I. It bagged two deepwater blocks each in Gujarat Saurashtra, Mumbai and Kerala-Konkan basin in NELP-II while in NELP-III it got one block each in Kerala-Konkan and Cauvery basin.

Meanwhile, ONGC has decided to bid with Engineers India Ltd for oil field services projects in Iran.

The two state firms will bid as a consortium for an international tender for engineering services for oil field development in Iran, sources said.