Director Shareholding

Cairn Energy PLC
06 June 2003


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

6 June 2003


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


                         Directors' Interests in Shares


Cairn announces that, following the release of shares which have previously
vested pursuant to the Company's Long Term Incentive Plan ('LTIP'), a total of
663,420 shares have been transferred out of the Cairn Energy PLC Employees'
Share Trust ('the Trust') to the executive directors of the Company.


Under the rules of the LTIP, the shares were released by the Trust following
expiry of the one year withholding period from the date of vesting. The shares
were however included in the director's beneficial interests as at the date of
vesting on 4 May 2002.


The executive directors have today sold a total of 652,892 ordinary shares at a
price of £3.00 per share. Details of the share sales and the resulting effect on
the executive directors' shareholdings are set out below:


Director               Previous           Shares Sold         New Shareholding
                     Shareholding

Bill Gammell             993,622             143,622                   850,000
Mike Watts               342,041             190,000                   152,041
Kevin Hart               362,041             140,230                   221,811
Malcolm Thoms            439,040             179,040                   260,000


Following this announcement, the executive directors' beneficial interests in
the ordinary shares of the Company are as follows:

                                                                Outstanding
                  Number of        % of Issued               Awards under LTIP
Director        Ordinary Shares   Share Capital  Options    Tier One   Tier Two

Bill Gammell      850,000            0.569       205,000    364,000    477,000
Mike Watts        152,041            0.102        80,000    269,000    373,000
Kevin Hart        221,811            0.149       100,000    252,000    373,000
Malcolm Thoms     260,000            0.174        60,000    242,000    373,000







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