Our story

In 2018 Cairn celebrated being listed on the London Stock Exchange for 30 years.

Cairn is an experienced oil and gas explorer, developer and producer and has operated in a variety of locations around the world. Historically, Cairn focused on South Asia where it created significant value for shareholders and stakeholders, particularly through its discovery, development and production of oil in Rajasthan, India. This was the largest onshore discovery in India for more than 25 years with the potential to provide more than 30% of India’s daily crude oil production and generate many billions of US dollars in revenue for the Government of India.

In 2006 the Indian business, Cairn India Limited (CIL), was listed on the Indian stock exchanges and in 2012 Cairn sold the majority of its stake in CIL and returned cash to shareholders as part of its business model to create, add and realise value for shareholders. Between 2006 and 2012 Cairn returned US$4.5 billion to shareholders.

Having created a legacy asset for India, Cairn then focused on rebuilding the business to create, add and realise value once again through exploration, development and production. We made the largest global offshore discovery of 2014 in Senegal which is now in the development planning stage, and participated in the development of two of the largest projects in the UK North Sea, Catcher and Kraken, which began production in 2017.

Cairn has a flexible exploration portfolio with a balance of near infrastructure, short cycle time opportunities with high value while remaining exposed to large, more frontier opportunties. This exploration is sustained by our production and development assets in the North Sea which provide the cash flow to support future exploration and development activity.

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1980	Cairn founded by Sir Bill Gammell
1988	Cairn Energy PLC formed and listed on the London Stock Exchange with market capitalisation of £25 million
1993	Entry into Bangladesh via joint venture with Holland Sea Search N.V
1994	Acquisition of further interest in Bangladesh
1995	Acquisition of Holland Sea Search N.V, increasing Bangladesh presence
1996	Acquisition of Command Petroleum Limited, which included operatorship of the Ravva field in India Sangu gas field discovered in the Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh
1997	Partnership with Shell in Bangladesh and India, including a 10% interest in Rajasthan (India) block
1998	Interest acquired in the Cambay Basin, India, with Cairn as operator First gas from Sangu, Bangladesh First exploration well in Rajasthan, India (Guda)
1999	First Rajasthan discovery (Guda) Ravva oil field reserves doubled and production increased from 3,700 bopd to 50,000 bopd
2000	First Cambay Basin discovery, Lakshmi, India
2001	Second Cambay Basin discovery, Gauri, India
2002	100% of Rajasthan block acquired from Shell First gas from Lakshmi, India (discovery to delivery in 28 months)
2003	Second Rajasthan discovery (Raageshwari)
2004	Three major Rajasthan discoveries – Mangala (the largest onshore oil find in India for 25 years), Bhagyam and Aishwariya Joined the FTSE 100
2005	First oil from Gauri field, India
2006	Cairn India Limited created
2007	Initial Public Offering (IPO) of Cairn India Limited on Indian Stock Exchanges, raising US$2 billion and returning US$1 billon to shareholders, 69% interest retained, biggest IPO in India at the time Acquired interests offshore Greenland
2009	Production commenced from the Mangala field, Rajasthan Mangala Processing Terminal (processing the crude oil from the Rajasthan fields) opened
2010	Pipeline from Rajasthan to refineries completed, world’s longest pipeline at the time Three wells drilled offshore Greenland
2011	Five wells drilled offshore Greenland
2012	Sale of 40% of Cairn India Limited (CIL) to Vedanta Resources Limited; US$3.5 billion returned to shareholders, 10% interest in CIL Sale of additional 11.5% interest in CIL for ~US$1.3 billion Acquisition of UK listed company Nautical Petroleum PLC, bringing exploration and development assets in UK and Norwegian North Sea (including Kraken development) and exploration in Morocco Acquisition of private Norwegian company Agora Oil and Gas AG, bringing exploration and development assets in UK and Norwegian North Sea (including Catcher development)
2013	Farm-in as operator to three blocks offshore Senegal, West Africa ConocoPhillips acquired 25% interest in Cairn’s blocks offshore Senegal, Cairn retained operatorship and 40% interest First well drilled offshore Morocco, Foum Draa permit
2014	Second well drilled offshore Morocco, Juby Maritime permit Two successful wells drilled offshore Senegal, resulting in the FAN and Sangomar oil discoveries
2015	Relinquishment of Foum Draa and Juby Maritime permits offshore Morocco Non-operated well offshore Western Sahara
2016	Four successful exploration and appraisal wells offshore Senegal
2017	Five successful exploration and appraisal wells offshore Senegal Two licences awarded in Mexico offshore licensing round First oil delivered from both Kraken and Catcher developments
2018	Development planning in Senegal with first oil expected 2022 and in Norway with first oil expected 2021 Third licence acquired offshore Mexico First full year of production from Kraken and Catcher in the North Sea New country interests acquired in Suriname, Mauritania and Côte d’Ivoire
2019	Equity swaps to increase acreage position offshore Mexico Production from Kraken and Catcher fields materially improved New country interests acquired in Israel Active exploration programme spanning the UK and Mexico
2020	Final Investment Decision on Sangomar Development Senegal Oil discovery offshore Mexico Disposal of Capricorn Norge AS Disposal of Senegal assets The tribunal established to rule on Cairn’s claim against the Government of India found in Cairn’s favour, awarding damages of US$1.2billion plus interest and costs
2021	US$250m special dividend following sale of Senegal interests