Management Changes

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 23 February 2017

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

Management Changes

Cairn is pleased to announce the appointment of Eric Hathon as Director of Exploration. Dr Hathon, who has more than 25 years experience in the international oil and gas industry, will join Cairn from Marathon Oil Corporation where he held the position of Director Conventional Exploration, based at the company's Headquarters in Houston, USA.

Dr Hathon will succeed Richard Heaton, currently Cairn's Director of Exploration, who is retiring after 23 years service with the company. Richard will step down from his role following Cairn's Annual General Meeting in May 2017.

Following a handover period, Eric will be responsible for leading all of Cairn's future exploration activities. He will be a member of Cairn's Senior Leadership team and will report directly to Simon Thomson, Chief Executive. Eric joined Marathon Oil Corporation in 1991 as an Exploration Geologist. Since then he has worked in a number of senior international management roles covering North and South America, Europe, Middle East and Africa. In addition to exploration responsibilities, Eric has held asset management and international new venture roles with Marathon. He has a BSc in Geology from Michigan State University and an MSc and PhD in Geology from the University of Missouri.

Simon Thomson, Cairn Chief Executive said:

"Eric brings a wealth of international industry experience and I am delighted to welcome him to Cairn. I look forward to working together with Eric and the rest of the senior management team in delivering our strategic objectives.

I would like to thank Richard for his significant contribution over his long career at Cairn where he has been a core member of the team. Richard has added significant value for the company, from the early days of managing the business in Bangladesh to his role in the significant discoveries in India and more recently with our exploration success in Senegal. We all wish him well in his retirement.

The management change announced today is part of a long term succession plan and will ensure Cairn continues to offer shareholders significant growth opportunities from a balanced portfolio of exploration and production assets." 

Eric Hathon, said:

"I am delighted to be joining Cairn which has had a consistent track record of more than 20 years of exploration success in a variety of locations around the world. I am joining the company at an exciting time as it looks to progress the significant finds made in Senegal that have opened up a new basin in West Africa."

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

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 opportunities across a growing resource base in Senegal and the UK and Norway and our portfolio elsewhere including Africa and the Mediterranean. Cairn has its headquarters in Edinburgh, Scotland supported by operational offices in London, Norway and Senegal. 

Cairn and Corporate Responsibility

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

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