Moody's upgrades Ras Laffan rating
Posted: 07 August 2007
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Moody's Investors Service has upgraded its long-term rating of senior secured amortising bonds issued by Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas Company Limited (RasGas) to Aa2 from Aa3.
The outlook on the rating is stable. The rating action follows Moody's upgrade of Qatar 's sovereign rating to Aa2 on 24 July 2007 .
Ras Laffan has $1.465 billion (stated at original face value) of amortising senior secured bonds in issue. The various senior secured debt facilities raised by the company rank pari passu with each other.
The ultimate shareholders of Ras Laffan are Qatar Petroleum (63.0 per cent) and ExxonMobil Corporation (25.0 per cent), with the balance being held by certain Japanese and Korean companies.
On the basis that Qatar Petroleum (Aa2, stable outlook) is wholly owned by the State of Qatar, Moody's categorises Ras Laffan as a Government-Related Issuer and applies the agency's Joint Default methodology.
In accordance with this methodology, the Baseline Credit Assessment (BCA) is in the eight to 10 range, and Moody's assesses both support and dependency as high, i.e. each being within a range of 71 per cent to 100 per cent. The stable outlook for the rating reflects the stable outlook for the BCA and the stable outlook for the State of Qatar's sovereign rating.
The rating rationale is set out in Moody's Credit Opinion for Ras Laffan, which can be found on www.moodys.com.
Ras Laffan is an LNG liquefaction company based in Qatar . In 2006, Ras Laffan reported revenues of $3.973 billion.
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