THE chief executive of Cairn Energy, Simon Thomson, has been awarded around £1.7m shares in the oil and gas firm subject to conditions under a programme that put directors and executives in line for shares worth £6.2m in total. Edinburgh-based Cairn said Mr Thomson was awarded 856,994 shares under the long term incentive plan introduce in 2009. The shares were awarded at £1.9407 each. The company said the number of shares that vest will depends upon the extent to which performance conditions are met over a three year period. Cairn’s chief financial officer James Smith stands to receive shares worth up to around £1.1m under the latest awards while director of exploration Richard Heaton could get around £1m worth. Nine directors and senior executives stand to get up to 3.2m shares in total. Announcing annual results on Tuesday, Cairn said recent drilling had confirmed the SNE oil field it discovered off Senegal in 2014 is a world class asset. The company said it could make plenty of money from the giant fields it is developing in the North Sea in spite of the crude price plunge. Mr Thomson has 573,000 Cairn shares currently, worth around £1.1m. He could receive 3.3m shares worth around £6.4m in total under the LTIP subject to conditions.