Cairn secures further rig for

RNS Number : 9268E

Cairn Energy PLC

04 January 2010

 



EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE AT 0700

4 January 2010

CAIRN ENERGY PLC ("Cairn")

Cairn secures further rig for Greenland in 2010

Cairn is pleased to announce it has secured a second drilling rig for its exploration programme in the Disko West area, offshore Western Greenland, in H2 2010.

The Stena Don, a semi-submersible and dynamically positioned fifth generation drilling rig, has been contracted to start operations in the summer drilling season (June-October) on Cairn's Disko West acreage in Greenland. 

The Stena Don will work alongside the previously announced Stena Forth on Cairn's Greenland exploration drilling programme subject to all required government approvals.

Dr Mike Watts, Deputy Chief Executive said:

"Contracting a second drilling rig for Greenland has further increased Cairn's operational capability and flexibility. We can now look forward to drilling up to four exploration wells in the undrilled Baffin Bay Basin offshore Disko West later this year.   

The acceleration of this exploration activity off the west coast also provides us with flexibility to include the previously unmapped and undrilled basins off the southern coast of Greenland in our planned future drilling programmes." 

Enquiries to:

Cairn Energy PLC Dr Mike Watts, Deputy Chief Executive Jann Brown, Finance Director David Nisbet, Corporate Affairs	Tel: [phone]
Brunswick Group LLP Patrick Handley David Litterick	Tel: [phone]

 NOTES TO EDITORS:

• Cairn Energy PLC ("Cairn") is an Edinburgh-based oil and gas exploration and production company listed on the London Stock Exchange. Following the IPO of Cairn India in January 2007, there are two separate parts of the business:

• Cairn India limited ("Cairn India") is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange of India and has interests in a total of 13 acreage blocks in India and Sri Lanka. Cairn now retains a 62.39 % interest in Cairn India.

• Capricorn Oil Limited ("Capricorn"), a subsidiary of Cairn is focused on exploration. Capricorn now has assets in Bangladesh, Nepal, Northern India, Greenland, Tunisia, Albania, and pending licence awards in Spain.

• "Cairn" where referred to in this release means Cairn Energy PLC and/or its subsidiaries (including Cairn India and Capricorn), as appropriate. 

• "Cairn India" where referred to in the release means Cairn India Limited and/or its subsidiaries, as appropriate. 

• "Capricorn" where referred to in this release means Capricorn Oil Limited and/or its subsidiaries as appropriate.

• Cairn through its subsidiary Capricorn operates six blocks in Greenland. It also has non operated interests in two other blocks.

• Cairn has focused its activities on the geographic region of South Asia, which has already resulted in a significant number of oil and gas discoveries.  In particular, Cairn made a major oil discovery (Mangala) in Rajasthan in the north west of India at the beginning of 2004. Cairn has made more than 20 discoveries in Rajasthan block RJ-ON-90/1. Production from Rajasthan started in August 2009 and is expected to reach a plateau of 175,000 bopd in 2011.

• Cairn India is headquartered in Gurgaon on the outskirts of Delhi, with operational offices in Chennai, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan. 

• Cairn Energy PLC (including Capricorn) is run from Edinburgh with operational offices in Dhaka, Chittagong, Tunis and Kathmandu.

For further information on Cairn see www.cairnenergy.com

 

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