Standard & Poor’s Thursday announced a number of downgrades to Russian oil and gas companies, following its downgrading of Russia’s sovereign ratings to junk last week. S&P, which like Platts is a unit of McGraw Hill Financial, lowered ratings on gas giant Gazprom and its oil arm Gazprom Neft, as well as Rosneft, Transneft and Novatek. In line with S&P’s criteria, companies which have strong links to the government cannot be rated higher than the sovereign. This is because it assumes that the government could use its power to intervene negatively, which could include burdening the company with additional taxes, dividends or other liabilities, S&P said. Article continues below… Oilgram News brings you fast-breaking global petroleum and gas news on and including: Industry players, upstream and downstream markets, refineries, midstream transportation and financial reports Supply and demand trends, government actions, exploration and technology Daily […]