PDVSA's financial performance has benefited greatly from the recent high oil prices. We expect Venezuela would provide sufficient support to state-owned PDVSA in the event of a financial distress. We are affirming the ratings on PDVSA at 'B+'. We expect PDVSA's liquidity and relationship with the Venezuelan government to remain the same over the next two to three years. On Dec. 1, 2011, Standard&Poor's Ratings Services affirmed its 'B+' long-term corporate credit rating on Venezuelan state-owned oil company Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA). At the same time, we affirmed the 'B+' senior unsecured issue-level rating on the company. The outlook is stable. The ratings on PDVSA reflect our opinion that there is an almost certain likelihood that owner
