India's state-owned GAIL (India) Ltd and Brazilian energy major Petrobras will become partners to jointly bid for exploration blocks in India and other countries.

The two companies signed a cooperation and confidentiality agreement last week during the visit of a GAIL team to Brazil, said a press release issued by GAIL Thursday.

Petrobras has shown keen interest in partnering GAIL for various exploration projects, including blocks in Iran, the press release said.

GAIL now holds participating interest in 16 exploration blocks, of which seven are on-land blocks and nine are offshore ones. The participating interests vary from 10 to 80 percent.

Source: Xinhua