Fitch Ratings has assigned Romgaz a first-time ‘BBB-‘ long-term issuer default rating (IDR) with a stable outlook.

Romgaz’s ‘BBB-‘ rating benefits from a one-notch uplift from its ‘bb+’ Standalone Credit Profile (SCP) for state support.

The SCP reflects Romgaz’s dominant position in Romania’s natural gas market, upstream production growth potential from the Neptun Deep and Caragele reservoir developments and conservative financial policy. Key rating constraints include its comparatively modest production scale, lack of geographic diversification due to its sole focus on Romania, the aging nature of its legacy gas assets, large capex and manageable execution risk.

“Achieving BBB- investment grade credit rating at Romgaz is a testament to our strong financial position, healthy business profile and disciplined approach to growth, this being another vote of confidence in our strategy. Our investment grade credit ratings will allow us to more effectively and efficiently access the credit markets as we continue to execute our growth strategy,” said Razvan Popescu, Romgaz Chief Executive Officer.