Moody’s cuts Woodside to negative

Moody's Investors Service said it affirmed the Baa1 senior unsecured issuer rating of Woodside Petroleum Ltd., the provisional Baa1 senior unsecured medium-term note program rating and the Baa1 senior unsecured ratings of Woodside Finance Ltd.

The outlook on all ratings was changed to negative from stable.

The change in outlook to negative follows the Dec. 15 revision of Moody's oil and natural gas price assumptions in light of continuing oversupply in both the global oil markets and the U.S. natural gas market.

"Woodside's negative outlook reflects Moody's expectation that earnings and credit metrics in 2015 will be weaker than previously expected, and will take longer to rebalance to more appropriate levels for the rating under our revised base case assumptions," Moody's vice president and senior credit officer Matthew Moore said in a news release.

"The negative outlook also reflects the current weakness in the sector and the remaining uncertainty and downside risk around prices."

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