SOCAR Among“Rising Star” Companies In Moody's Ratings For 2025

(MENAFN- Trend News Agency) BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb.27. Azerbaijan's state oil company SOCAR was among six oil and gas“rising stars” in 2025 - companies that became investment-grade in Moody's ratings, Trend reports.

“There were six oil and gas“rising stars” in 2025 - companies that became investment-grade - and only one“fallen angel,” or company that lost its investment-grade status. TechnipFMC plc (Baa2 stable) crossed over to Baa3 with a positive outlook in January 2025 and we subsequently upgraded it to Baa2 in September 2025 based on its reduced leverage, simplified capital structure and stronger free cash flow. Our upgrade of Expand Energy Corporation (Baa3 stable) reflected its significant debt reduction and commitment to more conservative financial policies. Our upgrades for DT Midstream (Baa3 stable) and Vallourec (Baa3 stable) reflected their growth in scale and sustainably improved credit metrics. We upgraded EnLink Midstream, LLC after ONEOK (Baa2 stable) acquired it, and upgraded State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (Baa3 stable) in line with Azerbaijan's sovereign upgrade to Baa3,” reads the latest report by Moody's.

Meanwhile, the rating agency downgraded SK Innovation (Ba1 negative) in March 2025 to reflect its persistently high leverage amid continued losses at its battery subsidiary.

Permian Resources Operating, LLC (Ba1 positive) was the only potential rising star entering 2026, following Moody's change in outlook to positive in November 2025.

Moody's notes that upgrades for rated oil and gas companies in 2025 continued to outpace downgrades for the fifth consecutive year, but the gap narrowed, with weaker oil prices reducing the free cash flow that companies had available to pay down debt. In addition, after several years of debt reduction, management focus within the broad industry had shifted to using free cash flow to boost shareholder returns.

“Our negative outlook for the Global Energy industry suggests that downgrades will continue to tick up from relatively low levels in 2026, but the industry still remains well positioned overall to weather potentially lower oil prices this year. We upgraded 43 oil and gas companies globally in 2025 and downgraded 21. But while we upgraded 9% fewer oil and gas companies than in 2024, our downgrades increased by 50%, reverting above the five-year average after very low levels in 2023-24. The upgrade/downgrade ratio for the sector declined to 2.0x in 2025, from 3.4x in 2024 and below the 3.9x five-year average,” the report says.

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