Receiving a billion-dollar tax demand from an overseas government could be the end for some companies. Cairn Energy has long since resolved that it isn’t going to be one of them.
For some onlookers, that tax issue, an Indian demand that has loomed over the Edinburgh-based oil company since 2014, remains the prime story at Cairn, one that has evolved into a tit-for-tat struggle, with the company counter-claiming for $1.4 billion and waiting for an international arbitration panel to give its verdict in the case.
Yet there is more to see here, with Cairn having re-established profitable production in the North Sea and loaded up its development plans elsewhere in the world. And it was this “other business” that dominated yesterday’s trading update.
Cairn —