HONG KONG (Standard&Poor's) Sept. 3, 2010--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that the rating on Korea National Oil Corp. (KNOC; local currency rating A+/Stable/--, foreign currency rating A/Stable/--) is not affected by the company's potential acquisition of Dana Petroleum (Dana; NR). We believe the acquisition is in line with KNOC's "critical" policy role mandated by the government of Korea (local currency rating A+/Stable/A-1; foreign currency rating A/Stable/A-1) in an effort to improve the nation's oil self-sufficiency ratio. However, the company's stand-alone credit profile would be weakened if the acquisition materializes. In our view, capital support from the Korean government would not be sufficient to cover the entire investment amount, which would increase KNOC's debt. However, this risk
