Scottish oil explorer Cairn Energy said yesterday it had raised more than £560million by selling a further 8% stake in Cairn India, which it previously owned.
The move continues the selldown of Edinburgh-based Cairn’s historic interest in the Indian business to fund new projects.
It retains a 10% stake in Cairn India after selling nearly 153million shares in the latest disposal.
Chief executive Simon Thomson said: “Cairn is delighted to have realised further value from its Rajasthan discoveries in India. In line with our stated strategy these proceeds will be used to deliver exploration-led growth and fund the development of discovered resources in the UK and Norwegian North Sea.”
Over two years, Cairn has shifted its focus towards the North Sea and the Mediterranean; adding those regions to its core exploration assets in Greenland as it moves away from the oil fields it helped to discover and develop in India. It sold a controlling stake in Cairn India to UK-listed miner Vedanta Resources in a £5.4billion deal last year.
Analyst Richard Griffith at broker Oriel said: “It is likely that Cairn will sell its remaining stake in Cairn India at some stage in order to fund its development and exploration programmes.”
Cairn said recently it planned to drill up to 15 wells in the North Sea before the end of next year.
After acquiring Norwegian exploration firm Agora Oil and Gas for about £280million in April and Nautical Petroleum for £414million in June, it now holds interests in 27 offshore licences in the North Sea; including stakes in the large Catcher, Kraken and Mariner fields.
Over the next 16 months, it expects to be involved in about seven firm and eight contingent North Sea exploration and appraisal wells. In addition to planned further drilling in Greenland over the coming years, the firm has submitted bids for exploration offshore Cyprus and Spain and agreed to pay Serica Energy £38million towards the cost of an exploration well in Morocco.
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