CAIRN Energy has highlighted the progress it has been making in areas such as the North Sea and West Africa although the company remains bogged down in a tax dispute in India.

In an interim Management Statement, Edinburgh-based Cairn noted that work is going well on two giant fields off the UK that it expects to bring into production in coming years.

Led by chief executive Simon Thomson, the oil and gas firm said work on the Kraken heavy oil development off Shetland is progressing on schedule with first oil expected in 2016/2017.

Work on the Catcher field east of Aberdeen is also progressing to plan. Premier Oil, which operates Catcher, expects the field to come onstream in 2017.

Cairn said it has funding in place to see the company through until the fields start production. Cairn's share of their output will peak at around 20,000 barrels per day.

The company acquired its interests in the fields under Mr Thomson's plan to combine potentially transformational drilling in under-explored areas with lower risk activity in the North Sea.

In September Holland's Dyas acquired a 10 per cent stake in Catcher from Cairn for up to $182 million (£114m), providing a vote of confidence for the vendor.

Mr Thomson received another boost early this month when Cairn made a find in frontier acreage off Senegal, which it said could contain 2.5 billion barrels of oil.

Yesterday Cairn said it is evaluating the find and targeting follow up activity in 2015. The company is drilling a second well off Senegal.

Cairn previously suffered reverses off Greenland, where it has spent more than $1bn without making a commercial find. Cairn said no more about Greenland in yesterday's IMS.

Mr Thomson said: "Cairn remains focused on maximising value for shareholders from disciplined capital allocation across a balanced asset base."

Cairn said authorities in India are still stopping the firm from selling its remaining stake in a former subsidiary in the country, valued at around $1bn.

The block is in force pending resolution of a long-running tax dispute. Renowned for making bumper finds in India. Cairn insists it has paid all taxes due in the country.

Yesterday it said: "Cairn is continuing to take all necessary steps to protect shareholders' interests."

Cairn said it had started to implement a group reorganisation following a staff consultation process, without giving details. In August, Cairn said it was consulting staff about making an unspecified number of jobs redundant.

It sold a controlling stake in Cairn India to Vedanta for $5.5bn in 2011.