New York, August 20, 2015 -- Moody's Investors Service downgraded ConocoPhillips' (COP) senior
unsecured and other long-term debt ratings to A2 from A1.
At the same time, Moody's affirmed the Prime-1 short-term
commercial paper ratings of ConocoPhillips and ConocoPhillips Qatar Funding
Ltd, as well as the short-term ratings of guaranteed industrial
revenue bonds. The rating outlook has been changed to stable from
negative.
Ratings downgraded by one notch include the long-term debt ratings
of ConocoPhillips, ConocoPhillips Company, ConocoPhillips
Holding Company, Conoco Funding Company, ConocoPhillips Canada
Resources, ConocoPhillips Canada Funding Company I and II,
Tosco Corporation, Burlington Resources, Inc.,
Burlington Resources Finance Company, Polar Tankers, Inc.,
Louisiana Land and Exploration, and guaranteed industrial revenue
bonds Valdez (City of) AK.
"The ratings downgrade reflects Moody's expectation that COP's
financial leverage will remain high through 2017, with the company
increasing its debt levels to fund negative free cash flow,"
commented Gretchen French, Moody's Vice President.
"We positively note that in the face of a weak commodity price environment,
COP has taken a number of steps to lower its cost structure, increase
its financial and operating flexibility, and maintain a strong liquidity
profile. However, the A2 rating positions the company with
more flexibility within the rating and relative to its peers."
RATINGS RATIONALE
COP's A2 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 growing liquids production and oil-linked LNG
projects support cash margins and cash flow. At the same time,
COP's earnings remain subject to volatility and cyclicality.
COP has a degree of production concentration in North American natural
gas, estimated by Moody's to account for 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 high, and given
weak price realizations through 2016 from the current low commodity price
environment, we expect low returns during this period.
We view COP's A2 rating as reasonably positioned relative to its independent
exploration and production (E&P) peers, reflecting the benefit
of a larger and more diversified reserves and production profile,
but with a more elevated financial leverage profile. We expect
COP's leverage metrics to deteriorate in 2015 and remain weak through
2016 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 be cash flow
negative through 2017, although this could be offset somewhat by
asset sales. However, cash flow outspending will materially
narrow by 2017, positioning the company for cash flow neutrality
or free cash flow post 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. COP
had $6.2 billion of availability as of June 30, 2015,
after accounting for CP outstanding (there were no letters of credit).
COP had $3.8 billion of cash as of June 30, 2015.
The stable rating outlook reflects our expectation that COP will be successful
in continuing to grow production and lower its costs even though debt
balances will continue to rise through 2017. We expect that retained
cash flow/debt improves from very weak levels of around 19% in
2015 to over 20% in both 2016 and 2017.
COP's A2 rating could be downgraded if the company's financial
leverage profile considerably weakens (retained cash flow to debt remains
below 20% through 2016 and early 2017). The rating could
also be pressured by prolonged weak reserve replacement and reinvestment
economics.
We do not expect a near-term ratings upgrade given COP's high capital
spending needs and negative cash flow profile. However, the
rating could improve in the future based upon its ability to lower its
financial leverage (retained cash flow/debt above 40%) while maintaining
competitive reserve replacement and reinvestment economics (leveraged
full-cycle ratio approaching 1.5x).
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.
The following information supplements Disclosure 10 ("Information
Relating to Conflicts of Interest as required by Paragraph (a)(1)(ii)(J)
of SEC Rule 17g-7") in the regulatory disclosures made at
the ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on www.moodys.com
for each credit rating:
Moody's was not paid for services other than determining a credit
rating in the most recently ended fiscal year by the person that paid
Moody's to determine this credit rating.
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 downgrades ConocoPhillips' unsecured ratings to A2, stable outlook