NOCs knocking on the market door

Historically, the large international oil companies (IOCs) such as BP, Total and ExxonMobil – all of which are have very high credit ratings – may have had the upper hand in global oil as a result of their expertise, technology and financial resources.

However, many of today’s national oil companies (NOCs) have become equally formidable players, putting both very much on an equal playing field.


That’s Moody’s view of the sector, and we find this is particularly true of the NOCs in the Middle East: Saudi Aramco and Qatar Petroleum, to name just two.

Currently, we apply a rating to only one NOC in the Middle East, namely Qatar Petroleum (rated Aa3), with the remaining giants still unrated, largely as a result of there being no immediate external funding requirements, as well as some resistance by NOCs towards disclosing what is often sensitive information about a country’s oil and gas reserves.

Gulf News