Standard&Poor's Ratings Services' ratings on Covington, La.-based LOOP LLC reflect the company's dominant market position as the sole offshore oil port operator for deep-draft oil tankers in the Gulf of Mexico, and its relatively stable and predictable cash flows. LOOP's importance to its owners' daily operations and its throughput and deficiency (T&D) agreements with them further strengthen its credit profile. Weaknesses include the longer-term threat of increasing Canadian crude and domestic onshore production that could impair LOOP's strategic importance and weaken cash flow, some competitive pressures from transferring oil from vessel to vessel (or, "lightering"), and LOOP's vulnerability to occasional operating disruptions during hurricane season. As of Dec. 31, 2011, LOOP had about $535 million in debt, adjusted
