HALIFAX - Former neighbours Nova Scotia and Morocco are joining forces in a bid to find petroleum riches.

The two were part of the same land mass 200 million years ago, before the supercontinent known as Pangaea broke apart.

Now, groups in each territory -- the Offshore Energy Research Association of Nova Scotia and Morocco's Office National des Hydrocarbures et des Mines -- have signed a memorandum of understanding for research of the offshore petroleum resource potential of both.

The Nova Scotia association said Monday that the study "will compare recently collected seismic and geochemical data to better characterize the common geological elements of the Scotian and Moroccan conjugate margins."

It said that "there is much to learn" about the potential.

The Nova Scotia government announced earlier this year plans to work with Morocco to reconstruct seismic images from 200 million years ago.