Moody's rates Saudi Aramco A1

Moody's Investors Service said it assigned a first-time A1 long-term issuer rating to Saudi Arabian Oil Co. (Saudi Aramco) and a provisional A1 rating to Saudi Aramco's global medium-term note program.

The outlook is stable.

Saudi Aramco has minimal debt relative to cash flows, large scale of production, market leadership and access in Saudi Arabia to one of the world's largest hydrocarbon reserves, Moody's said.

These features position it favorably against the strongest oil and gas companies that Moody's rates, the agency said.

But the rating is constrained by the government of Saudi Arabia's A1 rating because of the close interlinkages between the sovereign and the company, Moody's said.

Saudi Aramco benefits from a very large operational scale, significant downstream integration and strong financial flexibility given its low cost structure and robust balance sheet, the agency said.

This provides considerable credit resilience through oil price cycles, Moody's noted.

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.