British oil and gas exploration company Cairn Energy assured that its upcoming explorations in Northwest Africa and Ireland would be more likely to succeed, unlike its Greenland exploration. The firm had explored Greenland in 2010 and 2011. It spent USD 1.2 billion trying to find oil there but failed.

In the past year and a half, the company worked to secure exploration licenses in countries in Africa and Ireland. Cairn announced that in the next year, it would be drilling two exploration wells off the Moroccan coast and another two off the coast of Senegal in Africa. It would also start drilling one well off Ireland's west coast. The company said all these exploratory projects have an estimated 20% to 25% chance of success.

Cairn Energy Deputy Chief Executive Officer Mike Watts told reporters, "The previous campaigns in Greenland were very much reconnaissance campaigns. They were one in 10, (or) 10 percent chance of success ... so this is a different programme, a different, different style."

The company said it would spend USD 510 million for the current exploration projects. Chief Executive Officer Simon Thomson, meanwhile, said, "Any one of these wells is potentially game-changing for the company."