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By Liz Hampton and Devika Krishna Kumar
March 6 (Reuters) - The oil and gas industry is cancelling
key networking events and academic and technical meetings,
shifting some to virtual conferences, due to concerns about the
coronavirus and its fast-growing toll of more than 100,000 cases
worldwide.
A major energy conference planned by investment firm Scotia
Howard Weil in New Orleans in late March may go virtual, a
spokesperson for the company said on Friday, suggesting speakers
could present via webcast. No official decision had been made,
she added.
That conference, which would feature presentations from
major firms like Schlumberger and Occidental Petroleum
Corp, is typically a chance for energy companies to
discuss quarterly earnings and their outlook for the year.
The Society of Petroleum Engineers rescheduled its Latin
American and Caribbean Petroleum Engineering Conference in
Bogota, Colombia, citing public health concerns, according to
its website.
In addition, oil companies and service providers have
started cancelling events planned around the American Fuel and
Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) annual meeting in Austin,
Texas, from March 22-24. The conference itself is still
scheduled to go ahead, an AFPM spokesman said.
Price reporting agency S&P Global Platts has cancelled a
planned event, according to a spokeswoman. Oil major BP
and Total SA's trading arm Atlantic Trading &
Marketing Inc are not hosting any events this year, sources
familiar with the matter said. Neither company was immediately
available for comment.
This week S&P Global Platts told employees at its Canary
Wharf office in London to work from home until further notice
after a visitor was diagnosed with the virus.
BP has also cancelled plans to send executives and employees
to the South by Southwest music and tech festival in Austin, a
spokesman said.
Commodity broker Marex Spectron said this week that one of
its London employees had tested positive for the virus. The same
person had attended a company-sponsored event during London's IP
week, a major oil industry gathering.
Last week, IHS Markit cancelled its annual CERAWeek energy
conference, one of the world's largest gatherings of oil
ministers and executives, which was to kick off in Houston on
March 9.
(Reporting by Liz Hampton and Devika Krishna Kumar; Additional
reporting by Jessica Resnick-Ault and Stephanie Kelly; Editing
by Tom Brown)
