The Regional Association of Oil, Gas and Biofuels Sector Companies in Latin America and the Caribbean (ARPEL) informs that the ARPEL 2020 CONFERENCE, planned to be held during April 15 - 17 in Lima, Peru, has been postponed.

Given the current international situation generated by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, first reported in China in December 2019, and the risks associated with an international event, ARPEL has decided to postpone its flagship event taking into account several factors. These include the expansion of the new virus to different regions creating significant concerns at all levels, travel restrictions by companies, recommendations by health authorities, as well as cancellation of diverse multitudinous events in different geographical areas.

It is of public knowledge that the virus is spreading daily to new countries and today the Peruvian government confirmed the first case of coronavirus in that country.

We would like to publicly express our gratitude to member and non-member companies, both operators and services providers, to national and international institutions, to executives and technical experts from the industry, as well as to those governmental authorities that had already provided their support and confirmed their participation in the ARPEL 2020 CONFERENCE. We also want to thank the media partners from different countries of the region.

One of the main objectives of the Association being to generate spaces for dialogue and quality networking, ARPEL will continue working to organize what will be the sixth edition of the ARPEL CONFERENCE.

The Association will communicate the new date of the ARPEL CONFERENCE as soon as it is defined. This will, once again, bring together the key players of the sector in an event of high technical quality, where the topics of main interest will be addressed with an in-depth analysis by industry leaders.

We would –as of now- like to thank all the players involved for their empathy and for understanding how difficult it was for ARPEL to decide the postponement of the Conference.

Montevideo, March 6, 2020