Cairn Energy PLC announcement

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 24 January 2014

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

Cairn has been contacted by the Income Tax Department of India to discuss income tax assessments for the year ending 31 March 2007. Cairn is co-operating to provide the necessary documentation and information as requested. While discussions are ongoing, the Income Tax Department has instructed Cairn Energy PLC to hold its shares in Cairn India.

Cairn will update the market in due course.

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" or the "Group" or the "Company") 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 frontier exploration acreage in Morocco, Senegal, Republic of Ireland, Greenland, Mauritania and the Mediterranean along with exploration and pre-development interests in the North Sea. Cairn has its headquarters in Edinburgh, Scotland supported by operational offices in London, Greenland, Norway, Spain, Morocco and Senegal. 

Cairn and Corporate Responsibility

Ø 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

Ø 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