* Genel active in Morocco, Malta
* Gulfsands left Syria for Morocco
* Cairn scents promise offshore Spain
By Sarah Young
LONDON, Aug 23 (Reuters) - Middle East turmoil has given afresh spur to energy companies looking for big finds furtherafield to more stable and inviting hosts Morocco, Malta andSpain.
Close to known reserves and large markets, they offertempting terms for explorers without the risks of production inSyria, Libya or Egypt.
Morocco has lured companies with the promise of a link tothe energy-rich formations of west Africa, while in Malta thereare hopes of an extension of Libya and Tunisia's geology.
Off Spain, Cairn Energy sees geological similaritieswith Israeli waters, home to two of the largest offshore gasfields found in the past decade.
"You either have to go to the technical frontiers or thepolitical frontiers. In Morocco and Malta we're dealing withmuch more technical risk than political risk," Genel Energy's Chief Executive Tony Hayward, the former boss of oilmajor BP, told Reuters.
From Chevron, the second largest U.S. oil companywith a market capitalisation of $231 billion, to Fastnet, listed on London's junior market and worth $80million, firms have flocked to Morocco over the last eighteenmonths.
Gulfsands Petroleum typifies the trend. It waspumping about 10,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in Syriabefore the civil war started and sanctions imposed.
It shut up shop there in 2011, losing more than 90 percentof its production, and has since moved into Morocco.
"As you might imagine, after Syria what we're looking for issome stability, and Morocco's got terrific political stability,but it also has the best fiscal terms of any country in theMiddle East and North Africa region," Gulfsands's commercialdirector Ken Judge said.
Morocco defused Arab Spring-style protests in 2011 throughsocial spending, harsh policing and constitutional reforms.
Over 10 discovery wells are due to be drilled off its coastin the next 18 months, compared to analyst estimates of aroundnine since 1990.
Genel will start drilling off Malta in the first quarter ofnext year while Britain's Cairn will start a well in Morocco inSeptember. Cairn says on its website it could also startdrilling in Spain in 2015.
"Given some of the challenges you'll find in some of themore established (hydrocarbon producing) countries in NorthAfrica, you'd say it was worth taking a punt on Morocco at thispoint in time," Femi Oso, an analyst from energy consultancyWood Mackenzie, said.
The punt comes at a cost of around $80 million to drill anaverage well off the coast of Morocco, according to one companywhich declined to be named. Between them companies there aretargeting billions of barrels of oil, estimated but as yetunproven.
Modern technology has helped discover huge new oil and gasfields over the last decade in countries formerly overlooked byoil companies such as Ghana, Uganda and Mozambique, prompting ascramble for new acreage.
TAX TERMS
What the countries have in common, and what executives agreeis key to nurturing new drilling, is attractive tax terms.
"Because of fiscal terms in Morocco, even a modest discoveryof say 20 million barrels...would be phenomenally lucrative forour company," Gulfsand's Judge said, referring to the company'ssolely onshore presence there.
Morocco is one of the world's most energy-poor countries,importing around 95 percent of its needs, chiefly from Algeria, according to the World Bank.
Energy imports accounted for more than a quarter of thecountry's imports and contributed to a record trade deficit of$23.6 billion last year.
Companies exploring offshore where developments tend to bemore expensive need to find bigger fields. Executives toldReuters that in both Morocco and Malta finds of between 50million and 100 million barrels of oil would make forcommercially attractive developments, remaining tight-lippedover details.
Executives say governments often seek to change terms oncebig finds are made, but for now half a dozen companies polled byReuters say the incentives are worth the risk.
The Moroccan government take of cash flow produced from anyoil or gas field in Morocco would be about 30 percent lower thanwhat was typical for Algeria, Libya and the rest of the NorthAfrican and Middle East region, Wood Mackenzie analystsestimated.
One company looking at the region said the fiscal terms inSpain were as attractive as Morocco.
Like Morocco, Spain is a big energy importer, buying in over80 percent of its energy needs, spending more than 40 billioneuros - or about 4.5 percent of gross domestic product - a year.
In the midst of an economic crisis and struggling to keepenergy debts in check, the country is keen to develop any oiland gas reserves it might have.
"We're looking for hidden value in Spain," Cairn ChiefExecutive Officer Simon Thomson said, explaining that a historicfocus on beach tourism meant that much of the deep water off thecountry's coast had never been drilled.
"We do want to invest there...It's part of our long termplan to position ourselves."
