On Sept. 1, 2008, Standard&Poor's Ratings Services lowered its corporate credit ratings on international oil and gas supermajor BP PLC and its U.S. and U.K. affiliates, including Jupiter Insurance Ltd., to 'AA' from 'AA+'. We also lowered the long-term corporate credit rating on BP Finance PLC to 'AA-' from 'AA'. The downgrades follow our review of the company's business and financial performance and comparison with those of other major integrated oil companies. At the same time, we affirmed the 'A-1+' short-term ratings on the group. The outlook is stable. The lowering of the long-term ratings mainly reflects the following negatives, analyzed in the context of benchmarking with other major private integrated oil and gas companies: Reassessment of BP's
