Lasmo's sales fall

Lasmo's sales fall

HONG KONG (Dow Jones): Lasmo PLC of the U.K. (LSO) said late
Thursday that sales of liquefied natural gas from its Indonesian
fields could suffer additional declines on top of a 2 percent
fall this year.

In its interim results, the company added that LNG sales face
near-term potential for a "small number" of further decreases due
to the region's current economic problems.

This would come on top of the company's current forecast of
approximately 38 net LNG cargoes in 1998, or 2 percent below
earlier expectations, due to reduced near-term purchases by South
Korea. Earlier this year, the country's weakening demand forced
state-controlled Korea Gas Corp. to delay a total of 21 cargoes
from Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei.

The majority of this reduction has been rescheduled into 1999
and 2000, the company said. Beyond 1998, Lasmo said it expects
its net cargoes to increase until after the year 2000.

In the first half of 1998, the company said 136 cargoes were
exported from Indonesia's Bontang LNG plant, but net cargoes
attributable to Lasmo for its share in the Sanga production-
sharing contract fell to 18.0 from 22.3 the previous year.