CAIRN Energy chief executive Simon Thomson received a pay package of close to £1.1 million, the oil explorer's annual report has revealed.

That was an increase from the £962,000 he got in the prior year with 2014 seeing the Edinburgh company recording significant finds off Senegal but abandoning plans for acreage around Greenland after spending around $1 billion without making a commercial discovery.

The annual report states Mr Thomson's basic salary was £538, 125 while his annual bonus came in at £422,458.

On top of that he got pension and other investment payments worth close to £87,000 as well as benefits to the value of £26,126.

The main reason for the year-on-year increase was a near £92,000 increase in Mr Thomson's bonus.

Mr Thomson saw his basic Cairn salary increased by 1.5 per cent to £546,197 from January this year.

The annual report also notes Mr Thomson receives £35,000 for his non-executive director role at milk, butter and ice-cream producer Graham's The Family Dairy.

Former Cairn managing director and chief financial officer Jann Brown received more than £647,000 while Mike Watts was paid almost £683,000.

Both Ms Brown and Mr Watts stood down as executive directors in May last year but remained employed by the company until October.

Cairn's co-founder and former chief executive Sir Bill Gammell received £90,712 for the four-and-a-half months of the year he served as chairman until standing down in May.

New finance director James Smith, who was appointed in March last year, got £782,000 which included a £200,000 joining award.

Writing in the annual report chairman Ian Tyler said the company was still working to find a solution to a £1.1bn tax demand from the Indian authorities.

He said: "Our approach to date has been to focus on engagement with the Government of India and resolving this matter clearly continues to be a high priority. Our approach to date has been to focus on engagement with the Government of India and resolving this matter clearly continues to be a high priority."