Wednesday saw an announcement coming from Abu Dhabi National Energy Co Taqa, which confirmed about its termination of relationship with Standard & Poor's Ratings Services, after a negative credit watch was placed by the rating agency.

It was put forth by Taqa that it did not approve of the new methodology of the agency. Taqa basically runs oil wells and power plants.

Taqa Chief Executive Peter Barker-Homek said in an e-mailed statement: “Following our review of the new methodology published by S&P on 30 June, we do not believe these criteria will result in a rating that will accurately reflect the credit-worthiness of Taqa. In summary Taqa has not changed, but S&P has.”

It was mentioned by S&P this week that it had revised its methodology for government-retailed entities.

Due to this, majority state-controlled Taqa was placed on CreditWatch Negative, which meant a multi-notch downgrade of its long-term rating was possible. As of now, the rating of Taqa is AA-/Watch Neg/A-1+, compared to a previous AA-/Stable/A-1+.

Haissam Arabi, chief executive of Gulfmena Alternative Investments expressed, “This shouldn't have a major impact ... at the end of the day nothing has changed vis-a-vis the company, it’s S&P that has changed, although some people may interpret it as something negative.”

When S&P was approached regarding it, it firmly stood by its methodology.