JULY 12, 2017
LONDON (Reuters) – Big oil firms would face increased credit rating downgrade pressures if crude prices stayed below $50 a barrel on average until the end of 2018 and they did not compensate by cutting costs, S&P Global said on Wednesday.
S&P currently has downgrade warnings – or negative outlooks in rating agency parlance – on ExxonMobil XOM.n, Chevron Corp (CVX.N) and Total (TOTF.PA), while the other so-called ‘majors’ include Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) and BP (BP.L).
“If oil prices persistently trend below our price assumptions ($50/bbl on average until the end of 2018), downgrade pressure for many ratings would increase without material and sufficient further cost and capex efficiencies, disposals, or other countermeasures against weak credit metrics for a sustained period,” S&P said in a report.
It added that moderately higher oil prices would help credit metrics, but that for most of the big firms -with the exception of Shell- it “remains to be seen” whether they could see upgrades without a strong and sustained rebound in crude prices.
Brent oil was trading at $48.34 a barrel on Wednesday. LCOc1 [O/R]
Oil majors’ debt levels have ballooned with aggregate debt reaching nearly $300 billion in 2014, up from just under $200 billion in 2009 according to S&P’s estimates.
Reporting by Marc Jones; editing by Yumna Mohamed
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
