CAPRICORN ENERGY PLC

Regulatory Filings • May 11, 2015

National Storage Mechanism | Additional information

You don't have Javascript enabled. For full functionality this page requires javascript to be enabled.

RNS Number : 6966M

Cairn Energy PLC

11 May 2015

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE AT 0700                                                                                   11 May 2015

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

Cairn Capital Markets Day to outline evaluation plan submitted to Government of Senegal

Cairn and its joint venture partners have submitted a three year evaluation work plan to the Government of Senegal including an initial programme of three firm and three optional exploration and appraisal wells, with drilling starting in Q4 2015 in Cairn's new basin play offshore Senegal focused on the acreage around the SNE-1 discovery well.  Cairn estimates that the existing two discoveries and the currently identified prospects and leads have an estimated mean risked resource base of more than a billion barrels.

The Ocean Rig Athena, a 7th generation dual activity drillship has been selected for the drilling programme.   The rig is currently contracted to ConocoPhillips in Angola. Cairn is in the final stages of working with its joint venture partners to finalise the rig contract and associated support services, which are being tendered to secure current market pricing.

The firm three well programme is currently planned to include two appraisal wells of the SNE-1 discovery which will core and test the reservoir, as well as one shelf exploration well.  There will also be a 2,000km2 3D seismic data acquisition campaign over the Sangomar and Rufisque blocks to help fully map the prospectivity of the contract area.

A work programme and budget for the three optional wells will be presented to joint venture partners in Q3 2015. Targets for these wells will be drawn from a combination of further evaluation of the SNE-1 discovery, additional exploration in the shelf region, and exploration in the acreage around FAN-1.  Drilling plans for these wells will be subject to ongoing FAN studies and the results of the first three firm wells.

Cairn believes there is substantial prospectivity across all three of its blocks and to date at least five prospects and eighteen leads have been identified and continue to be matured to drillable status. 

Cairn is hosting a Capital Markets Day presentation on its operations in Senegal today in London for sell-side analysts and institutional shareholders. The event will include a series of presentations from senior managers and will be shown on our website via a live webcast from 9.30am BST.  Registration for the webcast and all materials from the day can be found at the following link www.cairnenergy.com

Simon Thomson, Chief Executive of Cairn Energy PLC said:

"Cairn made two significant discoveries offshore Senegal in 2014 proving a hydrocarbon system in a new and emerging Atlantic Margin Basin.  We are excited about the exploration and appraisal opportunity of this world class asset. We have now submitted a three year evaluation work plan to the Government of Senegal which is designed to lay the foundation for a long term multi-field, multi phase exploitation plan.

Our focus will be to add value in Senegal within a balanced, well funded company.  We are well placed to take advantage of this exciting opportunity as we build on the success of last year."

Webcast

There will be a live audio webcast of the presentation available to view on the website (www.cairnenergy.com) at 9.30am BST. This can be viewed on PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone and Android mobile devices.

An 'on demand' version of the webcast will be available on the website as soon as possible after the event. This can be viewed on PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone and Android mobile devices.

Presentation

The presentation slides will be available on the website from 9.15am BST.

Transcript

A transcript of the presentation will be available on the website as soon as possible after the event.

Enquiries:

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

The Production Sharing Contract in place with the Government of Senegal covers an area of ~7000km2 and consists of three blocks in Rufisque Offshore, Sangomar Offshore and Sangomar Deep Offshore.  The JV consists of Cairn as Operator (40% Working interest (WI)), ConocoPhillips (35% WI), FAR (15% WI) and Petrosen (10% WI).

Cairn Energy PLC ("Cairn") 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 North West Europe, North West Africa, North Atlantic and Mediterranean, underpinned by interests in development assets in the North Sea. Cairn has its headquarters in Edinburgh, Scotland supported by operational offices in London, Norway 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

This information is provided by RNS

The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

END

MSCUWSVRVOAVRAR