S&P cuts Petronin CCR, debt to BB+

Standard & Poor's said it lowered its long-term corporate credit and senior unsecured debt ratings on Petroleum Co. of Trinidad & Tobago Ltd. (Petrotrin) to BB+ from BBB-.

The outlook is stable.

S&P said the downgrade is based on Petrotrin's weaker-than-expected credit metrics, due to refinery operations interruptions following major plant upgrades, which led to significant delays and undermined the company's throughput.

The downgrade also reflects lower oil prices, rising global refined product supply, and high labor costs. As a result, the agency now views the company's financial risk profile as "highly leveraged."

"We expect debt to EBITDA to weaken significantly in 2015, resulting from a sharp decline in oil prices, which led the company to register an extraordinary cost as it marked to market its inventories during the first quarter of the year," S&P credit analyst Marcela Duenas said in a news release.

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