Cairn Energy Regulatory News (CNE)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                                          17 May 2012

CAIRN ENERGY PLC ("Cairn" or "the Company")

Voting Results of Annual General Meeting

1. Results of Annual General Meeting 2012

Cairn announces that at the Annual General Meeting held earlier today, all resolutions set out in the Notice of Annual General Meeting put to the Annual General Meeting were passed by the requisite majority, with the exception of Resolution 2.

Each of the resolutions put to the Annual General Meeting was voted on by way of a poll and the results are set out in the table below. Each shareholder, present in person or by proxy was entitled to one vote per share held.

* Includes discretionary votes.

** A vote withheld is not a vote in law and is not counted for the purposes of the calculation of the proportion of votes 'For' and 'Against' a resolution.

*** Indicates a Special Resolution.

2. Voting on Remuneration Report (Resolution 2)

Jackie Sheppard, new Chairwoman of the Company's Remuneration Committee, said:-

"We have taken on board and acknowledge the way shareholders have cast their proxy votes on remuneration.

We have listened to shareholders' concerns, having had extensive dialogue with investors in recent weeks. Cairn has learned from the recent consultation and is committed to listening closely to shareholders views on governance."

Sir Bill Gammell, Chairman of Cairn Energy PLC, said:-

"The Board and I fully acknowledge the strength of the views expressed by our shareholders in some of their voting today.

Cairn endeavours to meet the highest corporate governance standards and is conscious of its responsibility to ensure best practice and continue an open dialogue with its shareholders at all times."

As disclosed in the annual report, in order to ensure continuing focus on good governance within the Company and reflect emerging market practice, the Board agreed at its meeting in March that the remit of the Nomination Committee should be expanded to include a corporate governance function, thereby forming a Corporate Governance and Nomination Committee. The members of this committee are Jackie Sheppard (chair), Iain McLaren, Todd Hunt, Alexander Berger, Sir Bill Gammell and Jann Brown, with Simon Thomson attending by invitation. This new committee will meet at least twice annually and met yesterday prior to the AGM.

3. Resolutions Submitted to NSM

The Company has today submitted to the National Storage Mechanism (NSM) copies of Resolutions passed at the Annual General Meeting concerning items other than ordinary business. These documents will shortly be available for inspection at www.Hemscott.com/nsm.do.

The resolutions carried at the Annual General Meeting are set out in full in the Notice of Annual General Meeting which can be found on the Company's website at www.cairnenergy.com.