Director/PDMR Shareholding

Cairn Energy PLC
18 May 2007


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


                                                                     18 May 2007






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


 Interests of Directors/Persons Discharging Managerial Responsibility ('PDMRs')

                            in the Company's Shares



Cairn announces that it has today been notified by the Trustee of the Company's
Employees' Share Trust ('the Trust') that a total of 444,021 Ordinary Shares
were released by the Trust on 17 May 2007 to the Executive Directors and certain
PDMRs of the Company under the Company's Long Term Incentive Plan 2002 ('2002
LTIP'). The shares comprise (i) 46,800 of the 93,600 Ordinary Shares which
vested on 28 March 2007 and (ii) 397,221 Ordinary Shares which were released to
certain Executive Directors/PDMRs following the expiry of the one year
withholding period in respect of previous LTIP awards.


Details of the shares released from the Trust are as follows:-

Director/PDMR    Shares released pursuant  Shares released pursuant   Total
                 to vesting on 28 March    to expiry of withholding   shares
                 2007                      period                     released
Sir Bill
Gammell,                          12,600                     96,888
Chief Executive                                                        109,488

Dr Mike Watts,                     7,600                     80,888     88,488
Exploration
Director

Malcolm Thoms,                     7,600                     72,388     79,988
Chief Operating
Officer

Phil Tracy,                        6,400                     61,519     67,919
Engineering &
Operations
Director

Jann Brown,                        4,200                     36,519     40,719
Finance Director

Simon Thomson,                     4,200                     36,519     40,719
Legal &
Commercial
Director

Richard Heaton,                    4,200                     12,500     16,700
Head of
Exploration



Following the release of shares from the Trust, the Executive Directors/PDMRs
sold a total of 405,312 shares (327,374 of the shares released from the Trust
and 77,938 shares from personal shareholdings) at a price of £17.5333 per share
on 18 May 2007. Details of the share sales and the resulting effect on the
Executive Directors'/PDMRs' shareholdings are set out below:-

                  Previous Shareholding   Shares Sold*     New Shareholding

Director/PDMR

Sir Bill Gammell                697,426          187,426             **500,000

Dr Mike Watts                   274,115           74,115               200,000

Malcolm Thoms                    89,252           51,652                37,600

Phil Tracy                       74,319           27,919                46,400

Jann Brown                       48,981           16,781                32,200

Simon Thomson                    47,356           40,719                 6,637

Richard Heaton                   74,618            6,700                67,918


* includes (i) 77,938 shares sold by Sir Bill Gammell in addition to the shares
being released to him from the Trust and (ii) shares sold to cover income tax
and national insurance liabilities.

** a further 10,000 shares were gifted to charity by Sir Bill Gammell on 18 May
2007. This is reflected in his new shareholding.


Cairn also announces that Hamish Grossart, non-executive Deputy Chairman, sold
27,500 shares on 18 May 2007 at a price of £17.5333 per share.


Following this announcement the relevant Directors'/PDMRs' beneficial interests
in the Ordinary Shares of the Company are as follows:-

Director/ Number of      % Issued      Outstanding Awards  Outstanding Awards
PDMR      Ordinary       Share Capital under 2002 LTIP     Under 2006 LTIP
          Shares
                                       Tier One  Tier Two  Cairn      Capricorn
                                                           India      Units
                                                           Units
Sir Bill
Gammell        500,000         0.383    83,500    97,800    515,118    897,196

Dr Mike        200,000         0.153    58,300    89,000    187,803    981,308
Watts

Malcolm         37,600         0.029    52,100    78,000    482,923    280,374
Thoms

Phil            46,400         0.036    50,200    59,500    321,949    560,748
Tracy

Jann            32,200         0.025    33,900    31,300    268,291    467,290
Brown

Simon            6,637         0.005    34,600    32,900    134,145    700,935
Thomson

Richard         67,918         0.052    33,900    37,800    134,145    700,935
Heaton

Hamish           5,000         0.004         -         -          -          -
Grossart




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