UPDATE 2-Cairn to partner with Statoil on Greenland oil hunt

* Statoil to acquire 30.6 pct stake in Pitu block

* Analysts positive on entry of Arctic specialist Statoil

* Cairn shares up 0.5 pct, Statoil up 0.82 pct

By Sarah Young and Gwladys Fouche

LONDON/OSLO, Jan 23 (Reuters) - British oil explorer Cairn Energy is to team up with Norwegian group Statoil to look for oil and gas in Greenland, showing industry interest in the Arctic remains strong despite high-profile drilling failures.

Cairn said on Monday it signed a deal which will see Statoil acquire a 30.6 percent stake in one of Cairn's exploration licences off the coast of Greenland, part of a long-stated plan to get a partner to share costs exploring the region.

Cairn has led a $1.2 billion charge into the Arctic over the past two years which has so far failed to find oil.

The oil industry hopes to open up a new multi-billion oil province off the coast of Greenland, with Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell and Husky Energy and others all watching Cairn's drilling campaign closely, as they also plan to explore there.

"The exact financial terms of the agreement are confidential," Cairn said, adding that Statoil would pay a bonus on signing the deal as well as some of the costs of geological work that has already been done and certain other future exploration costs.

Industry sources said Cairn had hoped to be carried on future drilling costs but a lack of success to date appears to have hit its bargaining position, although some analysts called the partnership terms attractive.

"Arctic specialist Statoil's early entry into a part of Cairn's Greenland acreage, on attractive terms, validates the industry's and Cairn's long-held belief in the region's multi-billion barrel exploration potential," Morgan Stanley analysts said in a note.

Shares in Cairn climbed 0.5 percent to 292.1 pence at 1027 GMT, while Statoil was up 0.82 percent.

The two companies will partner on the Pitu block, the British firm's northernmost licence which is located in a sea known as "iceberg alley", on which it has not yet drilled a well but over which it has gathered geological data.

Statoil is trying to turn itself into an Arctic-exploration specialist as it builds up its presence in Alaska, Greenland, Russia and northern Norway, where it made two significant oil discoveries over the past year.

Drilling in the pristine Arctic is strongly opposed by environmental groups, which have tried to disrupt Cairn's activities there numerous times. They argue that cleaning up a spill in the region would be very difficult due to its remoteness and the harsh conditions.

But the potential prize is too big for oil firms to resist - energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie has said Greenland could have reserves of 20 billion barrels of oil which could turn the semi-autonomous Danish island into one of the world's major new oil regions.

Statoil already has an exposure to Greenland, owning stakes in two offshore oil licences both operated by Shell, and which lie close to the Pitu block.

"This is a frontier area. You have to drill a few wells before you understand the area properly," said a spokesman for Statoil.

Statoil also declined to give a value for the deal with Cairn, and would not comment on whether it would seek to farm into more Greenlandic licenses in future.