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Historic high energy prices have Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services raising different issues for the natural gas and coal sectors, according to previews Thursday of special “CreditWeek” reports scheduled to be released next week. For natural gas, the over-concentration of critical infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico region has been exposed; and for coal, financial and business-risk vulnerability are surfacing despite an 18-month steady run-up in prices, S&P said.

Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (S&P) has lowered the corporate credit rating on Cheniere Energy Inc. one notch, to “B” from “B+” to reflect a ring-fencing structure around Cheniere LNG Holdings LLC, a newly formed, indirect subsidiary that will own 100% of the interests in the Sabine Pass liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in southwest Louisiana and 30% interest in the Freeport, TX LNG terminal.

Standard & Poor’s (S&P) raised the credit rating on El Paso Corp. and its subsidiaries to “B” from “B-” and on El Paso Energy Credit Corp. to “B+” from “B” which “recognizes the considerable progress that the company has made in reducing exposure to unregulated operations and improving liquidity.” The company’s outlook is positive.

Under pressure to come up with cash to pay down debt following credit ratings downgrades last week by Moody’s and Standard and Poor’s, Calpine Corp. said last week that it is considering selling all or a portion of its U.S. natural gas assets, which include about 389 Bcfe of proved gas reserves.

Under pressure to come up with cash to pay down debt following credit ratings downgrades last week by Moody’s and Standard and Poor’s, Calpine Corp. said Tuesday that it is considering selling all or a portion of its U.S. natural gas assets, which include about 389 Bcfe of proved gas reserves.

Two to three years after the crash of the wholesale energy marketers the results of a new Standard & Poor’s survey of today’s market participants are “troubling,” to the ratings agency, which found that not all had learned the lesson of sound risk management practices regarding liquidity. Some also harbor the mistaken belief that it can’t happen again.

Two to three years after the crash of the wholesale energy marketers the results of a new Standard & Poor’s survey of today’s market participants are “troubling,” to the ratings agency, which found that not all had learned the lesson of sound risk management practices regarding liquidity. Some also harbor the mistaken belief that it can’t happen again.

Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (S&P) said it assigned a “B+” rating to the proposed $500 million senior unsecured notes and corporate credit of liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal developer Cheniere Energy Inc. with a stable outlook. S&P analysts said the junk bond rating primarily reflects the risk and uncertainties of the company rather than the operations of its four proposed LNG projects.

Questar Corp. wasn’t too happy about Standard & Poor’s (S&P) decision to downgrade the debt ratings of its regulated subsidiaries, Questar Gas Company and Questar Pipeline, to “A-” and its commercial paper to “A-2.” S&P affirmed the BBB+ long-term rating of Questar Market Resources and assigned a stable outlook for each Questar entity. “Our credit ratings remain strong, and we’ll keep them strong,” said CEO Keith O. Rattie. “No specific event triggered this action. In fact, our credit metrics today are stronger than at any time in the company’s history, so we don’t expect this action to have a material impact on our borrowing costs or access to credit markets.” S&P said that Questar’s growing exploration and production (E&P) business benefits Questar Gas and Questar Pipeline when commodity prices are high, but exposes them to greater risk when prices are low. “S&P also cited a negative shift in Utah’s regulatory environment as a factor in its decision to downgrade the credit ratings of Questar Gas. But more importantly, S&P affirmed a BBB+ rating for Market Resources, our E&P business and Questar’s primary growth driver,” Rattie added.