S & P degrades the Japan TEPCO (AFP)

TOKYO (AFP)-l' rating Standard and Poor Monday agency downgraded TEPCO, the operator of Central Fukushima sinistrée of the nuclear Japan, in the light of worsening of the business credit profile.

S & P said in a news release that it lowered the long-term corporate credit rating Tokyo Electric Power Co. has to B + from BBB and its credit rating corporate short term b from A - 2.

He said that the move, with a fall of five-notch in the notation in the long term, has been done "reflecting our view that there is a growing likelihood that the lender banks could undertake a form any restructuring of the borrowings of the TEPCO, on TEPCO worsening stand-alone credit profile".

The statement also noted "uncertainty on the provision of Government support to ensure the payment of the debt in a timely manner under the current political climate in the Japan extraordinary."

A poll in the Nikkei business daily Monday showed that nearly three quarters of Japanese voters are unhappy with the handling of the Government of center-left of the nuclear disaster.

The survey came days before Prime Minister Naoto Kan is facing a motion of no confidence threatened by the conservative opposition, which is unlikely to pass, but he nevertheless presents with fresh political headache.

Earlier this month following the troubled utility revealed the largest ever loss for a Japanese company outside the financial sector after being hit by huge costs of the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl.

The firm posted a net annual loss of 1.25 billion yen ($15 billion) and its President that Masataka Shimizu would resign over the crisis in the nuclear power plant of his reversed, said.

The assessor said risk that it had lowered its assessment of the likelihood that TEPCO will receive government extraordinary support to "high" of "very high".

"Standard and Poor still sees a high probability that the Government will legislate and implement the plan it announced May 13, 2011, to help offset TEPCO finance for damages related to the nuclear crisis," said the statement.

On 13 may, the Government has proposed for the first time that banks may have to waive certain terms of pre-quake ready to TEPCO before it gets assistance to pay allowances.

"However, in our view, remains the announcement is not clear if the framework for the scheme is subject to the cooperation of lender banks, and, if this is the case, which formed the Bank cooperation will take," said the statement.

She added "some politicians think that banks should share the workload in some form, which may fall within our definition of the default value". "We believe now that such a scenario is more likely that we previously thought.".

The electricity company faces the prospect of payment compensation worth tens of billions of dollars to the victims of the Atomic crisis.

TEPCO and the Government have not yet release estimates for bill payment, but analysts say it could vary from four billion yen (50 billion dollars) to 10 billion yen according to how long the hard nuclear crisis.

The utility said it had decided scrap plant reactors after the earthquake on 11 March and abandoned plans to build two more.

Fukushima, sitting on the northeast coast to Pacific, plant has been paralysed by the earthquake and tsunami and spread radiation in air, soil and sea in the worst nuclear crisis of the world since Chernobyl 25 years ago.

It is the fourth time this standard and poor has downgraded long-term ratings of the TEPCO since March 18.

Rival agency ratings Moody has also downgraded the operator three times and warned that its rating remains on review for possible more action.

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BP covers $1 bn Gulf spill costs of Mitsui Japan (AFP)

London (AFP) - BP said Friday that it had recovered more than 1.0 billion from $ in costs related to the Mexico Gulf oil spill devastating year last a US subsidiary of the Japanese Mitsui & Co. trading house

The announcement was good news for the giant of British energy at the end of a week in which BP saw its hopes for the exploitation of oil in the Arctic Russian shattered.

In a statement Friday, BP said that MOEX USA Corporation agreed to pay BP 1.065 billion (EUR 744 million) in compensation.

MOEX USA Corporation holds a 10% interest in the well project Macondo, where a leak in 2010 has been an environmental disaster on the Gulf Coast.

The leak was triggered by an explosion on the platform of leased BP Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of the Mexico, April 20, 2010. The explosion killed 11 workers, caused millions of barrels of oil to projecting into the sea and left the company British scrambling to meet the costs of huge compensation.

BP said Friday that payment of Mitsui would be immediately applied to the trust put in place to respond to BP $ 20 billion US.

"This regulation is an important step for BP and the communities of the Gulf," BP Group Director General Bob Dudley said in the statement.

"MOEX is the first company to join BP to help meet our responsibility shared in the Gulf, and Mitsui, through MOEX USA Corporation, shows the great corporate citizen in standing behind its subsidiary and making a contribution to the costs of this tragic accident."

"We call on the other parties involved in the Macondo well to follow the example of the MOEX and Mitsui parties," said Dudley.

BP has called a trio of companies - Transocean, Halliburton, and Anadarko-"to contribute in the appropriate manner."

He noted that Swiss group Transocean owns and operates the Deepwater Horizon platform and the Halliburton oil services group had designed and pumped cement from the well which was considered as a key factor in the accident.

He said energy producer American Anadarko has a 25 percent participation in the project of Macondo.

BP shares reached 4.0% 466 pence in reaction to the announcement of Friday, strongly exceeding the benchmark FTSE 100 in London, approaching up 0.52% overall from noon.

"More money (from Mitsui), the positive aspect of this new is that it marks a useful precedent for BP on two levels," said Peter Hutton, an analyst with RBC capital markets Canadian investment bank."

"One, it is likely to help negotiations/applications of BP with other rights holders, including Anadarko and two, it is compatible with a notice that the charges of"gross negligence"will be difficult to prove against BP.

"The Declaration of BP highlights MOEX acknowledged the findings of the US Coast Guard report that indicates many causes by several parties," said Hutton.

To meet its own costs of compensation and to lift the 30 billion at the end of 2011, BP sells goods. On Tuesday, it announced an agreement to sell a series of oil onshore fields in the South of England to the Franco-British exploration company Perenco for up to $ 610 million.

Including this transaction, BP earned more than $ 25 billion of sales of assets since last July.

But in a great blow to the BP this week, Russian State-controlled oil giant Rosneft has withdrawn from a planned joint venture with the company after losing patience with lengthy negotiations.

The share-swap of $ 16 billion agreement fell after Rosneft and BP have been unable to redeem the local partners in the Russian joint venture TNK - BP British Cabinet.

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Nuclear power plant in Hamaoka of closed Japan (AFP)

Of TOKYO (AFP) - Japan ageing of the Hamaoka nuclear plant located near a tectonic fault southwest of Tokyo, completed the closure of all its reactors Saturday to prevent any accident due to a natural disaster.

Reactor of the plant number five stopped power generation and has been closed to 1: 00 pm GMT (0400), said the spokesman for Chubu Electric Power Co. Hiroaki Oobayashi.

"The decision was confirmed after we have inserted all 205 control bars in the reactor", he added.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan had previously called for its closure, eight weeks after a massive earthquake and tsunami damaged the nuclear power plant in Fukushima Daiichi northeast of Tokyo, triggering the worst Atomic crisis of the world in 25 years.

The plant in Hamaoka, located 200 kilometres (125 miles) southwest of Tokyo, has five units of reactor, but only two have been running recently - numbers four and five. Number four reactor was suspended Friday.

Reactors one and two, built in the 1970s, were arrested in 2009, and three are under maintenance.

Seismologists have warned that a major earthquake is overdue in the Tokai area southwest of Tokyo where the Hamaoka plant long.

Hamaoka represents about 12 per cent of the production of Chubu Electric, which serves a large part of the industrial heart of the Japan, including many of Toyota Motor factories.

Kan said that the plant would remain closed while a higher sea wall was built and other measures are taken to prevent a major earthquake and tsunami. The local media, said the suspension was to last approximately two years.

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Third worker died in the Japan of the troubled nuclear power plant (Reuters)

TOKYO (Reuters) - a crippled tsunami in the Japan of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant worker died Saturday, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co., said, bringing the number of deaths at the complex in three since a massive earthquake and tsunami in March.

Despite the prolonged nuclear crisis, Prime Minister Naoto Kan is set to announce at a Summit of the G8 in France that Japan will continue to use nuclear energy, said the Yomiuri newspaper.

The cause of the death of the worker was unknown. The man, the sound of the 1960s, was employed by one of the Tokyo Electric contractors and began working at the plant Friday. It has been exposed to 0.17 millisieverts radiation Saturday, Tokyo Electric said.

Maximum level of the Japanese Government for exposure to male workers of the plant is 250 millisieverts for the duration of the effort to bring it under control.

The worker fell ill 50 minutes after the start of the work at 6: 00 pm Saturday (5 pm EDT Friday) and scopes to the unconscious of medical plant room. He later moved to a hospital near and confirmed the deaths, said a spokesman of Tokyo Electric.

At the factory working conditions are harsh. Goshi Hosono, Special Adviser to the Prime Minister Naoto Kan, and a legislative decision of the Democratic Party, expressed concern the complex Fukushima work environment on Wednesday.

"I would like to spend my energy to improve working conditions." Many people have told us work (at the factory) environment is too bad, "Hosono said at a press conference.

The March earthquake and tsunami has triggered the failure of cooling plant system and caused radiation to seep into the atmosphere and the sea, which prompted Kan to review energy policy nuclear leaning of the Japan to zero.

Kan intends to tell the g-8 at the end of may in Deauville, in France, the Japan will rely more on renewable energy, but will also improve the safety of Atomic Energy and continue the use of nuclear power, clearly making the country does not withdraw from nuclear energy production, the Yomiuri said.

Engineers still have difficulty tackling the Fukushima plant. Two employees of Tokyo Electric disappeared while patrolling the plant shortly after the earthquake and were found dead.

The Government plans to soon unveil a timetable to show how it is intended to proceed with the steps related to nuclear as crisis containing radiation leakage, and enquêter investigate the cause of the accident, said the Asahi newspaper.

In what could be a fresh obstacle to bring the troubled controlled plant, Tokyo Electric said that he found a large amount of water in the basement of the building that houses the reactor n ° 1 at Fukushima plant.

It is likely that the water that has been injected into the reactor it cool a leak in the basement, an official of the Tokyo Electric said.

(Reported by Kiyoshi Takenaka;) Editing by Daniel. (Magnowski)

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