Moody’s upgrades outlook on RasGas 3, Nakilat Inc to ‘positive’ from ‘stable’

Moody’s upgrades outlook on RasGas 3, Nakilat Inc to ‘positive’ from ‘stable’

Global credit rating agency Moody’s has affirmed the ‘A1’ guaranteed senior secured debt rating of RasGas 3 as well as the ‘A1’ senior secured debt rating and the ‘A2’ senior subordinated debt rating of Nakilat Inc.

The outlook on these issuers has been upgraded to “positive” from “stable”, following Moody’s affirmation of the ‘Aa3’ government bond and issuer ratings of Qatar, and change in outlook to “positive” from “stable”.

The rating actions on RasGas 3 and Nakilat Inc reflect that each is a government related issuer (GRI) and that the ratings benefit from Moody’s assumption of extraordinary support, if required, from the government to avoid a default on their debt obligations, which leads to a significant uplift from the standalone credit strength, or Baseline Credit Assessment (BCA), of the projects.

RasGas 3’s ‘baa1’ BCA is affirmed, which reflects its strong competitive position, very strong financial metrics, even in a low oil and gas price scenario, generally beneficial project finance structural features, although lacking certain security interests and subject to limitations on the likely effectiveness of certain creditor protections.

It also reflected the event risk considerations, including asset concentration risk and geopolitical risk and exposure to oil and gas commodity price risk.

The credit