Credit ratings agency Moody’s Tuesday cut its global and local ratings for state-owned oil company Petrobras, citing elevated leveraging by the company. Moody’s lowered its rating for the company to Baa2 from Baa1 and maintained a negative outlook. The agency said Petrobras has been negatively affected by declining oil prices, heavy investment commitments and a weakened local currency and said it didn’t believe the company would be able to reduce leveraging to cover costs until after 2016. “In the long-term, however, there could be an increase in the rating if there is a reduction of leveraging and an increase in profitable production and oil reserves, in conjunction with a higher sovereign rating,” the agency said. Petrobras has recently made heavy investments to develop Brazil’s offshore oil reserves in the so-called pre-salt area off the country’s Southeast coast. The heavy investment has coincided with a global decline in oil prices.