<div>British oil firm Cairn Energy bought a further position to hunt for oil and gas off the coast of Morocco, building on its strategy to balance its exploration portfolio beyond high-risk Greenland.<br /><br />The company said on 28 August that it would pay $60 million towards the costs of an exploration well in Morocco in return for a 50 per cent stake in a licence which it will share with smaller explorers San Leon Energy, Serica Energy and Longreach Oil and Gas.<br /><br />The partners plan to drill there in the second half of next year, Cairn said.<br /><br />Cairn also said it was seeking further exploration ground in Spain, adding that it had made a bid to gain exposure to exploration in Cyprus, and was planning to try to win a position off the coast of Lebanon.<br /><br />The company made its name with huge oil discoveries in India, but has spent the last two years focusing on Greenland, a frontier oil province, where it has so far failed to find oil.<br /><br />This year, it has sought to reshape itself, buying development opportunities and lower-risk exploration in the UK and Norwegian North Sea and developing a strategy to explore in the Mediterranean and off the coast of Morocco.<br /><br />Cairn said it expects to finish 2012 with cash of more than $500 million, the leftovers from a multi-billion payout from selling some of its Indian assets, some of which it returned to shareholders, and some of which it spent on buying North Sea-based Nautical Petroleum and Agora Oil & Gas.<br /><br />Shares in Cairn traded down 1.7 per cent at 291.8 pence at 0718 GMT.<br /><br />(Reuters)</div>
