	lasmo set to benefit from future oil price rises london and scottish marine oil plc lasmo lasl l will have an advantage when oil prices rise again and it is confident this will happen early in the next decade the company said in a statement accompanying results lasmo said its advantage comes from its reserves of oil and gas which at the end of stood at mln barrels of oil equivalent a group record reserves have increased every year since at a compounded rate of pct a year the company reported a pretax profit of mln stg down from mln in it said falling oil prices caused the downturn the company said it reacted swiftly to the sharp drop in oil prices which began over a year ago capital expenditure which had been budgeted at over mln stg was cut to mln stg net of disposals managers responded well to the demand for lower operating costs and this has been achieved worldwide the company said had very few exploration wells committed for and therefore retains maximum flexibility in its exploration program even without further success the existing fields and recent discoveries will contribute significantly to profit and cash flow for some years to come it said lasmo shares were down p at after the announcement reuter 
