HONG KONG (Standard&Poor's) Oct. 19, 2011--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services today assigned its 'A' ratings to Korea National Oil Corp.'s (KNOC; foreign currency rating A/Stable/--; local currency rating A+/Stable/--) US$6 billion global medium-term note program and the proposed senior unsecured bonds to be drawn from the program. The ratings are subject to final documentation. We have equalized the ratings on KNOC with the sovereign ratings on the Republic of Korea (local currency rating A+/Stable/A-1; foreign currency rating A/Stable/A-1). This reflects Standard&Poor's opinion that there is an almost certain likelihood that the Korean government would provide KNOC with timely and sufficient extraordinary support in the event it was to suffer financial distress. In accordance with our criteria
