Capricorn Energy PLC Regulatory News (CNE)

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE AT 7AM 7 March 2017

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

Senegal Appraisal Well result

Cairn is pleased to announce the results of the SNE-5 appraisal well offshore Senegal where operations have been safely and successfully completed ahead of schedule and under budget following drilling, logging, drill stem testing and the setting of pressure gauges.

Cairn's analysis and integration of the dataset collected is continuing with initial results in line with expectations and as follows:

Ø SNE-5 targeted a location in the Upper Reservoirs where two principal units are located within the oil leg

Ø Main reservoir units, pressure data and fluid contacts match previous SNE wells as expected

Ø Multiple samples of oil and gas were recovered during wireline logging and drill stem tests; analysis indicates oil of similar quality to previous wells

Ø Two drill stem tests were conducted within the Upper Reservoir units over gross intervals of 18m and 8.5m and were in line with expectations:

Ø DST 1a flowed from an 18m interval at a maximum rate of ~4,500 barrels of oil per day (bopd) on a 60/64" choke. Two main flows of 24 hours each were performed; the first at ~2,500 bopd on a 40/64" choke, followed by a second at ~3,000 bopd on 56/64" choke

Ø For DST 1b an additional 8.5m zone was added and the well flowed at a maximum rate of 4,200 bopd and for 24 hours at an average rate of ~3,900 bopd on 64/64"choke

The SNE-5 well has been plugged and abandoned and the Stena DrillMAX drill ship is moving location to commence operations shortly on the Vega-Regulus (VR-1) well, ~5 km to the west of the SNE-1 discovery.

VR-1 has two objectives; an Aptian exploration target and an appraisal objective in the SNE field.

The well will target the Vega-Regulus exploration prospect in the Aptian Carbonates underlying the SNE field which has potential gross mean consolidated prospective resource of more than 100 mmbbls.

In addition, the well will further appraise the SNE field targeting potential incremental resources. The results will help narrow the range of SNE field volumes and also allow the JV time to fully integrate the results of SNE-5 prior to moving to appraisal well SNE-6 to complete the planned interference test.

Enquiries to:

Analysts / Investors

David Nisbet, Corporate Affairs Tel: 0131 475 3000

Media

Patrick Handley, David Litterick

Brunswick Group LLP Tel: 0207 404 5959

NOTES TO EDITORS

The JV has drilled seven wells in three years; with two basin opening discoveries in the first 12 months of operation in 2014, followed by four wells completed ahead of schedule and under budget. Cairn then announced a contingent resource upgrade with gross oil in place on SNE of more than 2.7 billion barrels. The third phase of drilling commenced in January 2017 with further evaluation of the SNE discovery.

Cairn has a 40% Working Interest (WI) in three blocks offshore Senegal (Sangomar Deep, Sangomar Offshore and Rufisque), Woodside has 35% WI, FAR Ltd 15% WI and PETROSEN, the national oil company of Senegal 10% WI.

Cairn Energy PLC ("Cairn") is one of Europe's leading independent oil and gas exploration and development companies and is listed on the London Stock Exchange. Cairn has discovered and developed oil and gas reserves in a variety of locations around the world.

Cairn's business operations are now focused on frontier exploration acreage in North West Europe, North West Africa, North Atlantic and Mediterranean, underpinned by interests in development assets in the North Sea. Cairn has its headquarters in Edinburgh, Scotland supported by operational offices in London, Norway and Senegal. 

Cairn and Corporate Responsibility

Ø Cairn is a signatory to the UN Global Compact and our core values of respect, responsibility, relationships and our commitments towards people, the environment and society are enshrined in our Business Principles, which are available on the Cairn website at http://www.cairnenergy.com/index.asp?pageid=282

Ø Cairn became a participating company in the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) in September 2013. The EITI is a coalition of governments, companies and civil society, who have adopted a multi-stakeholder approach to applying the EITI global standard promoting transparency of payments in the oil, gas and mining sectors http://eiti.org/

For further information on Cairn please see: www.cairnenergy.com