On April 19, 2013, we revised the outlook on Venezuela to negative from stable. We are revising the outlook on Venezuela-based oil and gas company PDVSA to negative from stable and affirming our 'B+' ratings on the company. The negative outlook on PDVSA mirrors that on the sovereign, reflecting a potential downgrade if we lower the sovereign ratings. On April 22, 2013, Standard&Poor's Ratings Services revised its outlook on Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA) to negative from stable. At the same time, we affirmed our 'B+' foreign and local currency ratings on PDVSA. In accordance with our criteria on government-related entities and assuming no changes in the current likelihood of extraordinary support from the government, the outlook revision
