Capricorn Energy PLC (previously Cairn Energy PLC) is a British oil and gas exploration and development company and is listed on the
London Stock Exchange
London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St P ...
. Capricorn has discovered and extracted oil and gas in a variety of locations around the world. Capricorn Energy has a primary listing on the
London Stock Exchange
London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St P ...
and is a constituent of the
FTSE 250 Index.
History
The company was founded in 1981 by Sir
Bill Gammell
Sir William Benjamin Bowring Gammell FRSE (born 29 December 1952) is a Scottish businessman and former Scotland international rugby union player.
Early life
Bill Gammell was born in Edinburgh, and was the son of an investment banker, who was ...
, the former international
Rugby
Rugby may refer to:
Sport
* Rugby football in many forms:
** Rugby league: 13 players per side
*** Masters Rugby League
*** Mod league
*** Rugby league nines
*** Rugby league sevens
*** Touch (sport)
*** Wheelchair rugby league
** Rugby union: 1 ...
player, his father James (Jimmy), his brother Pete and others, as Cairn Energy. Its initial operations were in the USA and, following its listing on the
London Stock Exchange
London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St P ...
in 1988, it expanded into the UK North Sea and internationally (Papua New Guinea, Spain, Vietnam, China and Australia). The company acquired Conoco's UK onshore acreage in 1988 and became one of the largest operators of UK onshore oil production with the Palmers Wood oil field just south of London, near Junction 6 of the
M25, and at Humbly Grove (near
Basingstoke).
The company expansion started with a substantial (non-operated) gas discovery (East Cameron 331) Bangladesh near
Chittagong, in 1996. In parallel, the company launched a series of takeovers of public listed companies – Teredo Petroleum in 1994, Holland Sea Search NV in 1995 and Command Petroleum in 1996.
In 1996, the company farmed out a 25% interest in the Sangu field to
Halliburton
Halliburton Company is an American multinational corporation responsible for most of the world's hydraulic fracturing operations. In 2009, it was the world's second largest oil field service company. It has operations in more than 70 countries ...
in return for Halliburton bearing a 50% share of the development costs. In 1997, it sold half of all its Bangladeshi interests to
Royal Dutch Shell
Shell plc is a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New Yo ...
in return for Shell assuming a $330 million carry of the company's exploration and development costs. This agreement gave the company an interest in Shell's huge acreage position in
Rajasthan
Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern s ...
onshore in North West India. The company drilled two unsuccessful exploration wells and Shell then sold its 50% share to the company for $7.5 million: the company's third well, now 100% owned, found the
Mangala oil field.
![50 Lothian Road, Edinburgh](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/50_Lothian_Road%2C_Edinburgh.jpg)
In December 2010, the company agreed to sell a stake of 58.5% of
Cairn India
Cairn India was an Indian oil and gas exploration and production company, headquartered in Gurgaon, India. The company was merged with Vedanta Limited.
History
In early 1999, Cairn made the first Rajasthan discovery – Guda field, followed ...
, its India-focused subsidiary, to
Vedanta Resources
Vedanta Resources Limited is an Indian diversified mining company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the largest mining and non-ferrous metals company in India and has mining operations in Australia and Zambia and oil and gas oper ...
for $8.67 billion. Talks between the two companies started in August 2010.
[
] However, approval did not come from the Indian government until September 2011 and the deal had to be restructured.
The company sold an additional 3.5 per cent of its shares in its Cairn India for about US$360 million in June 2012. In March 2014, the company announced that Bill Gammell would step down as chairman after the annual general meeting on 15 May 2014.
The company changed its name from Cairn Energy to Capricorn Energy on 13 December 2021.
Operations
The company holds a portfolio of exploration, development and production assets, currently with interests in the following countries; the UK, Israel, Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, Mexico and Suriname.
Dispute
In 2006-2007, after Cairn UK transferred shares of Cairn India Holdings to its Indian counterpart
Cairn India
Cairn India was an Indian oil and gas exploration and production company, headquartered in Gurgaon, India. The company was merged with Vedanta Limited.
History
In early 1999, Cairn made the first Rajasthan discovery – Guda field, followed ...
, it refused to pay
capital gains tax
A capital gains tax (CGT) is the tax on profits realized on the sale of a non-inventory asset. The most common capital gains are realized from the sale of stocks, bonds, precious metals, real estate, and property.
Not all countries impose a c ...
in India. In response, the Indian government in 2012 made any capital gains resulting for the transfer of shares from a foreign entity whose assets were located in Indian taxable from 1962
retrospectively.
In December 2020, the
Permanent court of Arbritration at the Hague, awarded Cairn Energy $1.7bn in costs and damages, and in July 2021, a French court ordered a freeze on Indian Government properties in Paris and gave Cairn Energy the right to seize aircraft belonging to
Air India
Air India is the flag carrier airline of India, headquartered at New Delhi. It is owned by Talace Private Limited, a Special-Purpose Vehicle (SPV) of Tata Sons, after Air India Limited's former owner, the Government of India, completed the ...
.
References
External links
Official website
{{Authority control
Oil and gas companies of Scotland
Companies based in Edinburgh
Energy companies established in 1981
Non-renewable resource companies established in 1981
1981 establishments in Scotland
Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange
Companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange
Scottish brands