Falkland Oil & Gas has named French owned utility Edison as its new partner, bringing in a large, non-British company to help it explore for oil in the Falkland Islands

FOGL on Tuesday named Edison, which is owned by French group EDF as the unnamed company which it said in March had bought an option to invest in its license areas, reports Reuters.

The British company said Edison would pay around $50 million for costs already encountered in earlier exploration work and 2012 drilling costs for a 25 percent interest in its northern licenses and a 12.5 percent in its southern licenses.

Edison would also make a separate cash contribution of $40 million to FOGL, the company said.

"Overall this looks like an attractive deal for FOGL and highlights that the acreage is attracting interest from larger industry participants," Oriel Securities analyst Nick Copeman said.

FOGL will drill a well off the south of the islands in July, after a rig completes drilling a well for Borders & Southern.