AGM Statement

Cairn Energy PLC
03 June 2005


EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE AT 1215

                                                                   3rd June 2005


                                CAIRN ENERGY PLC


                             Annual General Meeting


The following statement was made by Cairn's chairman, Norman Murray at the
Company's Annual General Meeting held in Edinburgh today:-


'2004 was the busiest year in Cairn's history and the Board is delighted with
the continued progress and growth of the company in the early part of 2005.


Rajasthan, India


The value of Cairn was transformed in 2004 by the Mangala oil discovery in
Rajasthan. A further 11 discoveries on the block have highlighted the
prospectivity of the acreage and the importance of this new petroleum province
to Cairn and to India.


The Mangala field is the biggest discovery in India for 22 years and the draft
Field Development Plan (FDP) has already been submitted to our joint venture
partner ONGC and the Government of India. Development plans have also been
submitted for the Aishwariya, Saraswati and Raageshwari discoveries. The
anticipated approval for these plans is the end of 2005. We are consolidating
and building on the exploration successes of 2004 and moving at pace to ensure
that production begins from Mangala at the end of 2007.


Cairn anticipates formal approval shortly from the Government of India for an
extension of the Exploration licence for further appraisal over the northern
part of the Rajasthan block, termed the Appraisal Area. In addition, an
application for an extension of the southern area of the block has been
submitted.


The northern extension is for 2,884 km2 of acreage in the north and west of the
Rajasthan block. This Appraisal Area incorporates the Bhagyam and Shakti oil
fields as well as several structures requiring appraisal and intervening tracts
of untested acreage. One such structure, the N-I structure, has been
successfully tested by the N-I-2 well which has encountered oil in the Fatehgarh
formation.


The N-I discovery lies five km east of the Bhagyam field and 13 km north west of
Mangala. The N-I-2 well encountered 21 metres (m) of net oil pay in high quality
Fatehgarh reservoirs. The estimated oil column for the structure is 150 m.
Preliminary volume estimates suggest the N-I field is larger than Shakti but
smaller than Aishwariya with estimates for field in-place volumes between 35 and
70 million barrels .


The evaluation of N-I is at an initial stage but the discovery itself highlights
the potential of the acreage between Bhagyam and Mangala where a 320 km2 3D
seismic survey is planned.


It is expected that the Declaration of Commerciality, which is the first step
before the preparation and submission of the FDP, for the Bhagyam and Shakti
discoveries will be ready for submission by the end of June 2005. A 3D seismic
survey around Bhagyam covering 125 km2 is also underway.


Elsewhere in Rajasthan, Cairn continues to drill a range of exploration and
appraisal wells. Recent wells N-C-8, N-V-6 and N-V-7 have not encountered
commercial hydrocarbons but provide useful low cost information to delineate the
extent of the play in the Northern Area.


Indian Exploration Bid Round (NELP V)


For more than ten years India has been a focus for Cairn. NELP (New Exploration
Licensing Policy) V has attracted an unprecedented level of international
interest in India with very competitive bidding. Along with its joint venture
partner in India, ONGC, Cairn has submitted nine bids for both onshore and
offshore blocks including three in Rajasthan. For two of these blocks Cairn and
ONGC have been joined as a bid partner by ENI.


Bidding for the blocks closed on 31st May 2005 and it is anticipated that the
winning bids for NELP V will be announced by the Government of India on 31st
July  2005 and contracts signed by the beginning of October 2005.


Elsewhere in India, Bangladesh and Nepal


Following successful in-fill drilling campaigns on the Lakshmi (offshore
north-west India) and Sangu (offshore Bangladesh) gas fields, the group's
entitlement production for the first five months of 2005 was 27,633 barrels of
oil equivalent per day (boepd) net to Cairn. Production is in line with the
company's expectations. Full year entitlement production for 2004 was 22,789
boepd.


In the deepwater block, in the K-G basin off the east coast of India, which we
partially farmed out to ONGC, a three well drilling programme will start in the
next few weeks. Cairn has retained a ten percent interest in this block.


In Nepal, Cairn is carrying out studies on five exploration blocks and is
continuing to monitor the political situation.


The strength of our balance sheet enables us to move forward on the key
development projects in Rajasthan while maintaining an active exploration and
drilling programme providing potential for further growth.'




Enquiries to:


Cairn Energy PLC:

Bill Gammell, Chief Executive                   Tel: [phone]

Mike Watts, Exploration Director                Tel: [phone]

Kevin Hart, Finance Director                    Tel: [phone]

David Nisbet, Head of Group Communications      Tel: [phone]


Brunswick Group LLP:
Patrick Handley, Mark Antelme                   Tel: [phone]


A presentation by the Executive Directors at today's AGM is available on the
Company's website at www.cairn-energy.plc.uk .



Notes to Editors:


   •Cairn focuses its activities on the geographic region of South Asia.  The
    Group holds material exploration and production positions in west India,
    east India and Bangladesh along with new exploration rights in northern
    India and Nepal.

   •This focus on South Asia for more than ten years has already resulted in
    a significant number of oil and gas discoveries.  In particular, the company
    made a major oil discovery (Mangala) in Rajasthan in the north west of India
    at the beginning of 2004.

   •In 2002, Cairn was granted a three year extension of the exploration term
    of the entire Rajasthan block comprising 6,688 km2 until 15th May 2005. In
    October 2004 part of the block was converted from an exploration term to a
    production term forming a 1,858 km2 Development Area.


   •ONGC took up its option to acquire a 30% participating interest in the
    Mangala and Aishwariya discoveries in January 2005.


   •The Bhagyam 125 km2 3D survey is expected to be completed early July.


   •The total of Cairn discovered fields in Rajasthan is 12.


   •Current life of field reserve estimate of 500 million barrels based on
    secondary recovery only for Mangala, Bhagyam and Aishwariya -  the three
    northern fields.


   •Independent assessment of the three northern fields, assigns 1.64 billion
    barrels of oil in place.


   •India currently imports approximately two million barrels of oil a day
    (bopd).  It produces 650,000 barrels a day itself of which 50,000 bopd comes
    from the Cairn operated Ravva field.



           For further information on Cairn see www.cairn-energy.plc.uk



There are matters discussed in this media information that are forward looking
statements.  Such statements are only predictions and actual events or results
may differ materially.  For a discussion of important factors which could cause
actual results to differ from the forward looking statements, refer to the
Company's annual report and accounts for the year ended 2004.





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