LASMO Makes Discovery Offshore Indonesia.

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 8, 1999--

LASMO plc (NYSE: LSO), the international oil and gas exploration and production company, today announced an oil discovery offshore East Kalimantan, Indonesia. The Janaka North well encountered 50 feet of high quality reservoir with porosities of greater than 35 percent and low water saturation, together with 77 feet of associated thin bedded reservoir at a depth of between 7,797 and 8,600 feet TVDS.

The discovery is the first in the Rapak Production Sharing Contract (PSC) area, which is one of three PSC's into which LASMO agreed to farm in on May 1 of this year. Subject to Government and partner approval, LASMO has agreed with the operator, Unocal, to earn a 10 percent interest in the Rapak PSC and 20 percent in the Ganal and Sesulu PSC's. LASMO expects to drill up to 20 wells on the three PSC's by the end of 2000. The 1999 spend will be accommodated within the approved Group exploration and appraisal budget of (pound)55 million.

"Frontier" fiscal terms apply to all three PSC's, which have a combined area of approximately 15,000 square kilometers and water depths of between 600 and 1,600 meters. The acreage lies adjacent to the West Seno discovery announced in 1998 and reported as containing several hundred million barrels of oil equivalent reserves. This well, along with other recent tests has provided considerable encouragement that the deepwater area is both oil and gas prone.

All the PSC's are located close to LASMO's Sanga Sanga PSC which produces approximately 3 billion cubic feet per day of gas for export as LNG. The farm in agreement brings together Unocal's proven expertise in low cost deepwater drilling and LASMO's regional geological knowledge gained through 17 years of experience in Indonesia.

Commenting on the alliance with Unocal and the Janaka North discovery, Dr. Chris Wright, LASMO's Group Managing Director said:

"LASMO's strategy in Indonesia is to seek to access low unit cost reserves close to existing infrastructure. We view these three PSC's as very attractive due to their proximity to the export facilities of East Kalimantan, the renowned deepwater expertise of the operator Unocal and their location within a prolific hydrocarbon basin, as demonstrated by this early discovery. We believe that the combination of LASMO and Unocal provides a competitive vehicle for pursuing further deepwater opportunities within Indonesia and we are hopeful of announcing further co-operation during the remainder of this year."

In addition to LASMO's listing on the New York Stock Exchange, LASMO shares trade on the London, Toronto and Montreal Stock Exchanges. Shares are quoted on the SEAQ System, and prices may be accessed on the Reuter Equities 2000 Service under the symbol LSMR.L and on Quotron under the symbol LSMRU.EU. For further information, visit LASMO's web page at http:\\www.lasmo.com.