The offshore drilling industry is experiencing continued weakness due to lower capital spending by oil and gas exploration and production companies driven by sharply lower oil and natural gas prices, leading to much lower utilization and dayrates for offshore supply vessels. We have revised lower our 2016 and 2017 revenue and EBITDA estimates for U.S.-based offshore vessel provider Hornbeck Offshore Services Inc. We are lowering our corporate credit rating to 'CCC+' from 'B+' given our view that leverage is now at unsustainable levels. At the same time, we are lowering our issue-level rating on the company's unsecured debt to 'B-' from 'BB-' (recovery rating: '2'). The negative outlook reflects our view that Hornbeck's liquidity could deteriorate more quickly than we
