PRESS RELEASE: S&P Report Discusses Oil Spill, Deepwater Drilling Moratorium

The following is a press release from Standard & Poor's: NEW YORK (Standard & Poor's) July 22, 2010--Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said in a recent report that the business ramifications from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill are likely to be far reaching for U.S. oil and gas operators. The report, "What's The Credit Impact Of The Gulf Disaster On The U.S. Oil And Gas Industry?" also discusses the moratorium on deepwater drilling activity in the Gulf. "Our current ratings incorporate the major potential liabilities companies could incur in connection with the spill, including fines and penalties that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency could levy under the Clean Water Act, clean up and remediation costs, and potential litigation," said Standard & Poor's credit analyst Andrew Watt. Although these issues are difficult to quantify, we consider them in our analysis. Regulatory oversight and safety restrictions will also have cost and operational implications for all offshore operators in the U.S. Standard & Poor's has taken several negative rating actions because of the spill, including those on BP PLC, Anadarko Petroleum Corp., Mitsui & Co. Ltd., and Transocean Inc. In addition, we took several rating actions as a result of the moratorium. We're monitoring developments and their effect on 17 U.S.-based companies that have material operations in the Gulf. Based on the significance of these companies' exposure to the Gulf of Mexico and the financial cushion in their current ratings, we could take further rating actions as developments with the moratorium unfold. The report is available to RatingsDirect on the Global Credit Portal subscribers at www.globalcreditportal.com and RatingsDirect subscribers at www.ratingsdirect.com. 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Primary Credit Analyst: Andrew Watt, CFA, New York (1) 212-438-7868; andrew_watt@standardandpoors.com Secondary Credit Analyst: Aniki Saha-Yannopoulos, New York (1) 212-438-7847; aniki_saha-yannopoulos@standardandpoors.com Media Contact: David Wargin, New York (1) 212-438-1579; david_wargin@standardandpoors.com No content (including ratings, credit-related analyses and data, model, software or other application or output therefrom) or any part thereof (Content) may be modified, reverse engineered, reproduced or distributed in any form by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of S&P. The Content shall not be used for any unlawful or unauthorized purposes. S&P, its affiliates, and any third-party providers, as well as their directors, officers, shareholders, employees or agents (collectively S&P Parties) do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, timeliness or availability of the Content. 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