S&P: Forest Oil stable

Standard & Poor's said it revised its outlook on Forest Oil Corp. to stable from negative and affirmed the B+ corporate credit rating.

The agency said it also affirmed the BB rating on Forest's senior secured debt. The recovery rating on this debt remains 1.

Additionally, the agency affirmed the B- issue-level rating on its unsecured debt. The recovery rating on this debt is 6.

"The outlook revision follows the recent increase in our natural gas price assumptions through 2013 and the associated improvement in Forest's expected cash flows and profitability measures," said S&P credit analyst Marc Bromberg in a news release.

"Although the company plans to spend nearly all of its capital on more profitable liquids, the shift to more liquids production takes time. We expect that natural gas will represent approximately two-thirds of next year's production. As a result of our revised price assumption for natural gas, along with some downward revisions to our cost assumptions, we think that Forest will maintain leverage near 4x by the end of 2013," Bromberg said.

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