Cairn India has a Scottish heritage. The year was 1979 when Sir Bill Gammell, our chairman, founded Castle Cairn Financial Services. By 1986, the majority of its work was in the expanding gas and oil industry and a new company was formed Cairn Energy Management.

The company was acquired by Caledonian Offshore Limited in 1988 and was renamed Cairn Energy PLC, just prior to its flotation on the London Stock Exchange. Bill Gammell became its first Chief Executive and has held this position for nearly two decades, overseeing the organisation's transformation to one of the largest independent exploration and production companies in Europe. In the 2006 New Year's honours list, he was awarded a knighthood for services to industry in Scotland.

As the Indian oil and gas market deregulated in the early 1990s. Cairn turned its focus to South Asia, acquiring Command Petroleum Ltd in 1996, an Australian-quoted company with interests in India. Ravva in Eastern India was the FIRST OFFSHORE oil ...more