Bermuda-based sEnergy Insurance Ltd. has received an “A2” rating from Moody's Investors Service.

sEnergy was set up in May 2002 and provides business interruption insurance for companies in the energy field.

Roger Paschke, chief financial officer for sEnergy, said that business interruption insurance covers a wide range of losses stemming from events such as earthquakes, weather-related events and even terrorist acts.

He said: “Business interruption has been out there for a long time, and prior to 9/11 it was relatively inexpensive to obtain.

“But leading up to and post 9/11 it became very difficult to obtain for energy companies, because they were seen as high risk companies.”

Mr. Paschke explained sEnergy joined the group of companies which includes Oil Insurance Limited and Oil Casualty Insurance, Ltd.

He said that sEnergy came into being when certain member companies covered by Oil Insurance Limited and Oil Casualty Insurance for physical damage asked them to review whether they could provide business interruption cover.

Like its sister companies, sEnergy is a mutual insurance company specialising in energy companies:

“All of its members must be broadly speaking energy companies and need to be approved for membership.”

sEnergy provides business interruption, excess property damage and pollution liability insurance to its members with limits of up to $200 million on a per-occurrence basis and $200 million on an aggregate basis for multiple policy holder claims arising out of one event.

The company currently has 13 members and approximately $220 million in shareholders' equity.

Mr. Paschke said they recently had extensive dealings with Moody's and S&P in relation to the establishment of Fusion Capital Ltd., a contingent capital facility funded through the sale of $400 million of four year floating rate insured notes (the “Notes”). Moody's currently rates the Notes “Aaa”.

“This rating is a by-product of that transaction,” said Mr. Paschke, adding: “For a company so new, to have this kind of strong rating is very beneficial to the growth of the company.”

Mr. Paschke said that the sEnergy staff include seasoned professionals who have worked within the oil and gas industry in some cases for more than 20 years.