* Buys 50 pct stake in licence offshore Morocco
* Expects to end 2012 with cash of more than $500 mln
LONDON (Reuters) – 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.
The company said on Tuesday that it would pay $60 million towards the costs of an exploration well in Morocco in return for a 50 percent stake in a licence which it will share with smaller explorers San Leon Energy, Serica Energy and Longreach Oil and Gas.
The partners plan to drill there in the second half of next year, Cairn said.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Shares in Cairn traded down 1.7 percent at 291.8 pence at 0718 GMT.
