MELBOURNE (Standard&Poor's) Dec. 29, 2009--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services today affirmed its 'A-' corporate credit and associated debt ratings on Woodside Petroleum Ltd. (Woodside) following the company's completion of its institutional offer, and the expectation that the remaining Royal Dutch Shell PLC (Shell, AA/Stable/A-1+) commitment of about A$400 million will be received together with the retail offer in mid-February 2010. At the same time, we removed the ratings from CreditWatch with negative implications, where they were placed on Nov. 20, 2009. The outlook is negative. So far, Woodside has received about A$1.3 billion of funds out of the planned A$2.5 billion equity raising. "In our opinion, completion of Woodside's equity raising will improve the company's liquidity position, alleviate
