High proportion of crude oil in its reserves and production mix Nonoperator business model that depends on other "operator" companies' drilling plans Limited geographic diversity Limited scale of operations Adequate hedging to support near-term cash flows Aggressive capital spending program The stable outlook reflects Standard&Poor's Ratings Services' expectations that Northern Oil And Gas Inc. (NOG) will manage its aggressive capital spending in a manner that will not significantly erode its credit protection measures. We could lower our rating if debt leverage exceeded 5x, or liquidity were to significantly erode with no near-term remedy. We could consider an upgrade if NOG can increase run-rate production to more than 25,000 barrels per day and reserves to more than 125 million
