New York, February 18, 2015 -- Moody's Investors Service changed ConocoPhillips' (COP) rating outlook
to negative from stable. At the same time, Moody's
affirmed COP's senior unsecured and other long-term debt
ratings at A1, and affirmed the Prime-1 short-term
commercial paper ratings of ConocoPhillips and ConocoPhillips Qatar Funding
Ltd.
Ratings affirmed include the long-term debt ratings of ConocoPhillips,
ConocoPhillips Company, ConocoPhillips Canada Resources Limited,
ConocoPhillips Canada Funding Company I and II, Tosco Corporation,
Burlington Resources, and Louisiana Land and Exploration.
"The negative rating outlook reflects the expectation that COP's
debt balances will rise over the next two years, leading to leverage
in excess of targets for its A1 rating," commented Gretchen
French, Moody's Vice President. "There is uncertainty
to the amount and durability of increased debt, which will primarily
be a function of realized oil and natural gas prices and COP's capital
discipline and ability to achieve its production growth targets."
Affirmations:
..Issuer: Brazos Harbor TX, Industrial Development
Corp
....Senior Unsecured Revenue Bonds (Local
Currency), Affirmed A1
....Senior Unsecured Revenue Bonds (Local
Currency), Affirmed P-1
..Issuer: Burlington Resources Finance Company
....Senior Unsecured Regular Bond/Debenture
(Foreign Currency), Affirmed A1
..Issuer: Burlington Resources, Inc.
....Senior Unsecured Regular Bond/Debenture
(Local Currency), Affirmed A1
..Issuer: Conoco Funding Company
....Senior Unsecured Regular Bond/Debenture
(Local Currency), Affirmed A1
..Issuer: ConocoPhillips
.... Issuer Rating, Affirmed A1
....Multiple Seniority Shelf (Local Currency),
Affirmed (P)A1
....Multiple Seniority Shelf (Local Currency),
Affirmed (P)A2
....Multiple Seniority Shelf (Local Currency),
Affirmed (P)A3
....Senior Unsecured Commercial Paper (Local
Currency), Affirmed P-1
....Senior Unsecured Commercial Paper (Foreign
Currency), Affirmed P-1
....Senior Unsecured Regular Bond/Debenture
(Local Currency), Affirmed A1
..Issuer: ConocoPhillips Canada Funding Company I
....Senior Unsecured Regular Bond/Debenture
(Foreign Currency), Affirmed A1
..Issuer: ConocoPhillips Canada Funding Company II
....Senior Unsecured Regular Bond/Debenture
(Foreign Currency), Affirmed A1
..Issuer: ConocoPhillips Canada Resources Limited
....Senior Unsecured Regular Bond/Debenture
(Foreign Currency), Affirmed A1
..Issuer: ConocoPhillips Company
.... Issuer Rating, Affirmed A1
....Senior Secured Equipment Trust (Local
Currency), Affirmed Aa3
....Senior Secured Pass-Through (Local
Currency), Affirmed Aa3
....Senior Secured Regular Bond/Debenture
(Local Currency), Affirmed A1
....Senior Secured Shelf (Local Currency),
Affirmed (P)Aa3
....Senior Unsecured Medium-Term Note
Program (Local Currency), Affirmed (P)A1
....Senior Unsecured Regular Bond/Debenture
(Local Currency), Affirmed A1
....Senior Unsecured Shelf (Local Currency),
Affirmed (P)A1
..Issuer: ConocoPhillips Holding Company
....Senior Unsecured Regular Bond/Debenture
(Local Currency), Affirmed A1
..Issuer: ConocoPhillips Qatar Funding Ltd.
....Senior Unsecured Commercial Paper (Foreign
Currency), Affirmed P-1
..Issuer: ConocoPhillips Trust I
....Pref. Stock Shelf (Local Currency),
Affirmed (P)A3
..Issuer: ConocoPhillips Trust II
....Pref. Stock Shelf (Local Currency),
Affirmed (P)A3
..Issuer: Louisiana Land & Exploration Company
....Senior Unsecured Regular Bond/Debenture
(Local Currency), Affirmed A1
..Issuer: Polar Tankers, Inc.
....Senior Unsecured Regular Bond/Debenture
(Local Currency), Affirmed A1
..Issuer: Tosco Corporation
....Senior Unsecured Regular Bond/Debenture
(Local Currency), Affirmed A1
..Issuer: Valdez (City of) AK
....Senior Unsecured Revenue Bonds (Local
Currency), Affirmed A1
....Senior Unsecured Revenue Bonds (Local
Currency), Affirmed VMIG 1
Outlook Actions:
..Issuer: Burlington Resources Finance Company
....Outlook, Changed To Negative From
Stable
..Issuer: Burlington Resources, Inc.
....Outlook, Changed To Negative From
Stable
..Issuer: Conoco Funding Company
....Outlook, Changed To Negative From
Stable
..Issuer: ConocoPhillips
....Outlook, Changed To Negative From
Stable
..Issuer: ConocoPhillips Canada Funding Company I
....Outlook, Changed To Negative From
Stable
..Issuer: ConocoPhillips Canada Funding Company II
....Outlook, Changed To Negative From
Stable
..Issuer: ConocoPhillips Canada Resources Limited
....Outlook, Changed To Negative From
Stable
..Issuer: ConocoPhillips Company
....Outlook, Changed To Negative From
Stable
..Issuer: ConocoPhillips Qatar Funding Ltd.
....Outlook, Changed To Negative From
Stable
..Issuer: ConocoPhillips Trust I
....Outlook, Changed To Negative From
Stable
..Issuer: ConocoPhillips Trust II
....Outlook, Changed To Negative From
Stable
..Issuer: Louisiana Land & Exploration Company
....Outlook, Changed To Negative From
Stable
..Issuer: Polar Tankers, Inc.
....Outlook, Changed To Negative From
Stable
RATINGS RATIONALE
COP's A1 rating reflects the company's considerable scale
and global geographic diversification of reserves and production,
and a large cash flow profile generated from a wide base of mature producing
assets. Its liquids production and oil-linked LNG projects
support relatively stronger revenue realizations and cash margins compared
to a number of its peers. At the same time, these remain
subject to volatility and cyclicality, and COP has a degree of production
concentration in North American natural gas, estimated by Moody's
at about a quarter of its total production in 2015, which will continue
to be hurt by weak prices. COP's F&D unit costs are increasing,
but we believe its strategy to restructure and re-focus its operations
will enable it to replace reserves and grow production at competitive
full cycle once oil prices recover from the severe price weakness of 2015.
We view COP's A1 rating as weakly positioned based on the company's
elevated financial leverage relative to its independent exploration and
production (E&P) peers, despite the benefit of larger and more
diversified reserves and production. Moody's expects COP's
leverage metrics to deteriorate further in 2015 relative to its E&P
peers as it continues to maintain a high dividend payout through the downturn
and a still heavy (albeit reduced) capital spending program in excess
of internal cash flows. Based on Moody's price assumptions,
we expect COP to generate roughly $7 billion of negative free cash
flow in 2015 after capital spending and dividends, which the company
indicates will be financed with debt and cash on the balance sheet.
Absent a significant price recovery, we also expect negative free
cash flow again in 2016, with cash flow neutrality achieved by 2017,
at the earliest.
Including Moody's debt adjustments, we estimate that COP's
cash flow based leverage metrics will deteriorate materially in 2015,
with retained cash flow to debt declining to 14% in 2015 from 51%
for the period ending September 30, 2014. COP's cash
flow based leverage metrics look set to improve in 2016 based on both
higher assumed commodity prices and continued production growth,
but the degree of improvement may not be sufficient to support an A1 rating
given the expectation of continued negative free cash flow generation
in 2016. Under this scenario, COP's leverage metrics
may not show material improvement in financial leverage until 2017.
The affirmation of COP's short term Prime-1 ratings reflects
the company's strong liquidity position. COP has a $7.0
billion multi-year committed bank credit facility maturing in June
2019 that is available to back-stop commercial paper, with
$6.1 billion of availability as of September 30, 2014,
after accounting for CP outstanding (there were no letters of credit).
COP had $5.8 billion of cash as of September 30, 2014.
COP's A1 unsecured ratings could be downgraded if retained cash
flow to debt is sustained below 25%. The rating could also
be pressured by failure to deliver on production growth targets or by
low reserve replacement and poor reinvestment economics.
We do not expect a near-term ratings upgrade given COP's positioning
as an independent E&P and its high capital spending needs and negative
cash flow. However, the rating could improve in the future
based upon a stronger financial performance and maintenance of competitive
reinvestment metrics, as well as its ability to lower its financial
leverage while growing reserves and production.
The principal methodology used in these ratings was Global Independent
Exploration and Production Industry published in December 2011.
Please see the Credit Policy page on www.moodys.com for
a copy of this methodology.
ConocoPhillips is headquartered in Houston, Texas.
REGULATORY DISCLOSURES
For ratings issued on a program, series or category/class of debt,
this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation
to each rating of a subsequently issued bond or note of the same series
or category/class of debt or pursuant to a program for which the ratings
are derived exclusively from existing ratings in accordance with Moody's
rating practices. For ratings issued on a support provider,
this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation
to the rating action on the support provider and in relation to each particular
rating action for securities that derive their credit ratings from the
support provider's credit rating. For provisional ratings,
this announcement provides certain regulatory disclosures in relation
to the provisional rating assigned, and in relation to a definitive
rating that may be assigned subsequent to the final issuance of the debt,
in each case where the transaction structure and terms have not changed
prior to the assignment of the definitive rating in a manner that would
have affected the rating. For further information please see the
ratings tab on the issuer/entity page for the respective issuer on www.moodys.com.
For any affected securities or rated entities receiving direct credit
support from the primary entity(ies) of this rating action, and
whose ratings may change as a result of this rating action, the
associated regulatory disclosures will be those of the guarantor entity.
Exceptions to this approach exist for the following disclosures,
if applicable to jurisdiction: Ancillary Services, Disclosure
to rated entity, Disclosure from rated entity.
Regulatory disclosures contained in this press release apply to the credit
rating and, if applicable, the related rating outlook or rating
review.
Please see www.moodys.com for any updates on changes to
the lead rating analyst and to the Moody's legal entity that has issued
the rating.
Please see the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on www.moodys.com
for additional regulatory disclosures for each credit rating.
Gretchen French
VP - Senior Credit Officer
Corporate Finance Group
Moody's Investors Service, Inc.
250 Greenwich Street
New York, NY 10007
U.S.A.
JOURNALISTS: 212-553-0376
SUBSCRIBERS: 212-553-1653
Steven Wood
MD - Corporate Finance
Corporate Finance Group
JOURNALISTS: 212-553-0376
SUBSCRIBERS: 212-553-1653
Releasing Office:
Moody's Investors Service, Inc.
250 Greenwich Street
New York, NY 10007
U.S.A.
JOURNALISTS: 212-553-0376
SUBSCRIBERS: 212-553-1653
Moody's changes ConocoPhillips' rating outlook to negative