July 27 (Reuters) - UK North sea focused oil explorer Deltic Energy on Thursday terminated its Southern North Sea joint venture (JV) with Capricorn Energy after the latter's decision to exit all operations outside Egypt.

Capricorn Energy, which has scrapped two potential deals in the last year due to shareholder pressure, in April announced plans to exit all exploration positions outside Egypt and started the process of selling its UK assets as it tries to cut costs.

Deltic said it will give up three of the five exploration licences held with Capricorn while continuing to operate the remaining two licenses on its own.

"While we would have preferred to continue in partnership with Capricorn on these exploration licences, Capricorn has recently changed strategic direction," Deltic CEO Graham Swindells said.

Deltic in early July upgraded hydrocarbon estimate to twice as much as initially thought for the Pensacola Gas field in North Sea that it owns and operates with oil major Shell.

(Reporting by Prerna Bedi in Bengaluru; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee)