Oil and Gas UK (OGUK) has decided to chop up one of its flagship industry reports and cancelled key events in response to the coronavirus outbreak.
The industry body’s Business Outlook report, an annual publication due next week to set out the sector’s performance and future prospects, is now being “revaluated” due to the virus concerns and its impact on the oil price.
OGUK has also cancelled a pair of breakfast briefings planned for next week in Aberdeen and London to discuss the publication, which will be replaced by a webinar with industry representatives.
Instead of the Business Outlook, the organisation plans to publish a series of smaller reports over the coming weeks to capture the “dynamic business environment”.
In a note to members, OGUK said: “Given the rapidly changing commodity price environment in which we now find ourselves, and the potential implications across the industry, we’re taking the opportunity to revaluate the content of the Business Outlook report and over the coming weeks publish a series of smaller reports to best capture what is a dynamic business environment.”
The price of the Brent Crude benchmark started dropping in response to the coronavirus outbreak at the start of the month.
It then had a 30% plunge over the weekend when supply cut talks between Russia and Saudi Arabia fell through.
Despite a slight rally yesterday, the rebound has faltered today after the Kingdom said it would boost its production capacity.
OGUK said all tickets for the breakfast events are being refunded.