NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) May 15, 2012--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today it revised its recovery expectation and lowered its issue-level rating on Wayzata, Minn.-based Northern Oil and Gas' (NOG) proposed senior unsecured notes due 2020. The rating revision follows NOG's announcement that it will upsize the bond issue by $50 million to $300 million. We lowered the recovery rating on the notes to '5' from '4', indicating our expectation of modest (10% to 30%) recovery in the event of a payment default. Consequently, we lowered the issue rating on the notes to 'B-' (one notch below the corporate credit rating) from 'B' to reflect the revised recovery expectations. The 'B' corporate credit rating on Northern Oil&
