Hi °C | Lo °C Cairn Energy has highlighted the potential for oil and gas in Morocco and the Mediterranean after ongoing frustration in Greenland.
The Edinburgh-based group will pay $60m (£38m) for a 50% stake in a licence shared with a number of smaller companies, marking a "significant addition" to its exploration portfolio.
And it plans to expand its search in the Mediterranean by seeking further sites to explore in Spain, Cyprus and Lebanon.
The group is now focusing on three key areas - the Mediterranean, the Atlantic margin including Morocco, and the North Sea - as it looks to diversify away from Greenland where it has failed to make a significant find.
It has broadened its focus to frontiers closer to home as it looks to secure a steady supply of oil.
Cairn now has 27 licences in the North Sea and recently agreed to pay £414m for Nautical Petroleum, with fields expected to produce oil in the next four years, while this deal also saw it take a stake in a licence off Morocco.
Chief executive Simon Thomson said: "Cairn is actively rebalancing its portfolio to deliver exploration growth."
The company has harvested large amounts of data from Greenland which it is now analysing, and said all the necessary ingredients for a discovery are there.
The group is working with Statoil on its Pitu block and hopes to start exploration drilling in 2014.
Cairn reported that pre-tax losses reduced to $50m (£31.6m) in the six months to June 30, from $141m (£89.2m) in the previous year.
