LAWSON SAYS BP SHARE OFFER GOING AHEAD U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson said the Government was going ahead with this month's flotation of British Petroleum Co Plc <BP.L> shares despite the collapse on international stock markets. "We are going ahead because the whole issue has been underwritten - we had it underwritten because there is always a risk of this sort of thing happening," Lawson said in a BBC radio interview. Lawson's remarks came as renewed selling on the London stock market took BP shares down a further 33p to 283, well below the 330p price set for the around seven billion stg issue. Lawson said the U.K. Economy is fundamentally sound and added that stock markets had reflected that recently. "I profoundly believe in the market system as the best way for securing economic prosperity (but) that does not mean to say the markets are infallible." "My advice to small investors...Is to remain calm. There is absolutely no reason not to do so," Lawson said.