Poor

Thomas F. Karam, president of Southern Union, said the downgrade of the company’s corporate credit rating from BBB+ to BBB by Standard & Poor’s was expected, and the action was accompanied by some other positive findings. For example, S&P removed Southern Union’s rating outlook from “CreditWatch” and assigned the company a stable rating.

Characterizing itself as “prospect-rich in a prospect-poor industry,” Chesapeake Energy Corp. of Oklahoma City lined up more of those prospects Monday with an agreement to acquire $530 million of Mid-Continent natural gas assets in two transactions with the bulk of the assets in a western Oklahoma package from El Paso Corp. and the rest from Vintage Petroleum Inc.

Characterizing itself as “prospect-rich in a prospect-poor industry,” Chesapeake Energy Corp. of Oklahoma City lined up more of those prospects Monday with an agreement to acquire $530 million of Mid-Continent natural gas assets in two transactions with the bulk of the assets in a western Oklahoma package from El Paso Corp. and the rest from Vintage Petroleum Inc.

More than compensating for the company’s poor refining results, BP’s Exploration and Production (E&P) segment boosted net income to $651 million for the fourth quarter, compared to a loss of $603 million in the year earlier quarter. For full-year 2002, BP’s total net income increased to $6.85 billion from $6.56 billion in 2001. Sales on the year increased to $202.5 billion from $200 billion.

Faced with the “deterioration of [the] financial soundness” of certain natural gas shippers on its system, Questar Pipeline Co. is proposing tariff changes that would protect itself financially in the event firm capacity is released by non-creditworthy or insolvent shippers.

As downgrades of energy companies by credit ratings agencies such as Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s have increased with the speed of a runaway freight train, the companies have evolved different strategies to keep their businesses running, one of which is to remove or omit ratings triggers in much of their business.

As downgrades of energy companies by credit ratings agencies such as Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s have increased with the speed of a runaway freight train, the companies have evolved different strategies to keep their businesses running, one of which is to remove or omit ratings triggers in much of their business.

Faced with the “deterioration of [the] financial soundness” of certain natural gas shippers on its system, Questar Pipeline Co. is proposing tariff changes that would protect itself financially in the event firm capacity is released by non-creditworthy or insolvent shippers.

More than compensating for the company’s poor refining results, BP’s Exploration and Production (E&P) segment boosted net income to $651 million for the fourth quarter, compared to a loss of $603 million in the year earlier quarter. For full-year 2002, net income increased to $6.85 billion from $6.56 billion in 2001. Sales on the year increased to $202.5 billion from $200 billion.