Following our annual review and the recent downgrade of Venezuela, we have reassessed our business risk profile and liquidity assessment on Venezuelan oil and gas company, PDVSA. We revised downward the company's stand-alone credit profile to 'b' from 'b+' on the revision of our assessment of its business risk profile to "weak" from "fair" and its liquidity to "less than adequate" from "adequate." We affirmed our 'B' foreign and local currency corporate credit ratings on PDVSA. The negative outlook mirrors that on the sovereign and reflects our view that PDVSA's relationship with the government will not change significantly in the next few years. MEXICO CITY (Standard&Poor's) Oct. 15, 2013--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services affirmed its 'B' foreign and
