Cairn Oil & Gas appoints top oil leader as Chief Operating Officer

New Delhi, 27 December 2021: Cairn Oil & Gas, India’s largest private exploration and production company, has appointed Martyn Smith, a seasoned oil & gas global leader, as Chief Operating Officer. Smith is joining Cairn with an extensive experience of 35 years in reservoir & petroleum engineering and subsurface geoscience disciplines.

Smith has been part of the leadership in global companies including British Petroleum where he led as the Global Head of Reservoir Development. He is joining Cairn at a promising time as the company seeks to double its capacities and contribute 50% to India’s domestic crude production. He has worked in diverse oil & gas portfolios across various technical, commercial and research roles in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, North America and Africa. He holds a Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Geophysics from Cardiff University and has done his MBA from Henley Management College, UK.

Speaking on the company’s new appointment,Prachur Sah, Deputy CEO, Cairn Oil & Gas, said, “We are delighted to appoint Martyn as our Chief Operating Officer. At Cairn, we are focusing heavily on hiring the best global talent across levels of our organisation. Martyn is joining us at an exciting time as we pace ahead with the next phase of growth. He will work closely with the SBUs, focus on driving production volumes and help realize the full potential of our assets – from existing fields as well as new acquisitions under successive OALP and DSF bids. Martyn’s global experience will add particular value to our goals of doubling production capacity and also recruiting the brightest minds in the industry to carve an efficient path to that end.”

Speaking on his appointment, Martyn Smith, Chief Operating Officer, Cairn Oil & Gas, said, “Cairn Oil & Gas has made rich gains from successive OALP auctions and is now poised to realise its vision of doubling production capacities. Today, Cairn hosts great potential, unmatched across the globe. With fresh investments and global technology tie-ups, the company is determined to augment capacities and secure energy autonomy for India. My goals here at Cairn will be to drive innovation, introduce new ideas and ease the adoption of modern-age digital technology for faster growth. I am thoroughly excited to join the company at this cusp of growth and work in India – as an oil & gas professional, this is an opportunity I am looking forward to.”

Cairn Oil & Gas, a vertical of Vedanta Ltd., currently produces 170,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day and plans to invest an additional USD 5 billion over the next 2-3 years. The company seeks to expand oil production to almost 500,000 barrels a day to contribute to 50% of India’s domestic production and aid the country’s journey towards energy aatmanirbharta.
 

About Cairn Oil & Gas, Vedanta Ltd.

Cairn Oil & Gas, Vedanta Ltd., is the largest private oil and gas exploration and production company in India, accounting for more than a quarter of India’s domestic crude oil production. It has a world-class resource base, with a current interest in 58 blocks in India, including the 41 blocks under the Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP) Round I auction, five blocks each under Round II and Round III, and two awarded under the Discovered Small Fields (DSF) Round-II. In 2004, Cairn made the largest onshore discovery in more than two decades in India at Mangala, Rajasthan. In its operations of 20 years, Cairn has opened four frontier basins with numerous discoveries, 38 in Rajasthan alone. Cairn Oil & Gas has recently reiterated that it is a separate entity with no connection to Cairn Energy PLC, the Scottish oil and gas exploration company. The brand name ‘Cairn’ is now exclusively owned by Vedanta Limited, and all others will discontinue the use of the brand name ‘Cairn’.

Vedanta Limited, a subsidiary of Vedanta Resources Limited, is one of the world’s leading Oil & Gas and Metals companies with significant operations in Oil & Gas, Zinc, Lead, Silver, Copper, Iron Ore, Steel, and Aluminium & Power across India, South Africa and Namibia. For two decades, Vedanta has been contributing significantly to nation-building. Governance and sustainable development are at the core of Vedanta’s strategy, with a strong focus on health, safety, and the environment. Vedanta has put in place a comprehensive framework to be the ESG leader in the natural resources sector. Vedanta is committed to reducing carbon emissions to zero by 2050 or sooner and has pledged $5 billion over the next 10 years to accelerate the transition to net-zero operations. Giving back is in the DNA of Vedanta, which is focused on enhancing the lives of local communities. The company’s flagship social impact program, Nand Ghars, has been set up as model anganwadis focused on eradicating child malnutrition, providing education, healthcare, and empowering women with skill development. Under the aegis of the Anil Agarwal Foundation, the umbrella entity for Vedanta’s social initiatives, the Vedanta group has pledged Rs 5000 crore over the next five years on social impact programmes with a thrust on nutrition, women & child development, healthcare, animal welfare, and grass-root level sports. Vedanta and the group companies company have been featured in Dow Jones Sustainability Index 2020, and was conferred Frost & Sullivan Sustainability Awards 2020, CII Environmental Best Practices Award 2020, CSR Health Impact Award 2020, CII National Award 2020 for Excellence in Water Management, CII Digital Transformation Award 2020, ICSI National Award 2020 for excellence in Corporate Governance, People First HR Excellence Award 2020, ‘Company with Great Managers 2020’ by People Business and certified as a Great Place to Work 2021. Vedanta’s flagship Nand Ghar Project was identified as the best CSR project by the Government of Rajasthan. Vedanta Limited is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange.

For more information, please visit www.vedantalimited.com/www.cairnindia.com

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

For further information please contact:

• Ms Rashika Kaul
Chief Communication Officer
Cairn Oil & Gas, Vedanta Ltd
Rashika.Kaul@cairnindia.com

• Mr Ayodhya Prasad Gaur
General Manager
Cairn Oil & Gas, Vedanta Ltd
Ayodhya.Prasad@cairnindia.com

• Mr Mukul Chhatwal
Senior Manager, Corporate Communication
Cairn Oil & Gas, Vedanta Ltd
Mukul.Chhatwal@cairnindia.com