Energy Majors Skip Riyadh: BP Withdraws from World Petroleum Congress After Airport Attack; ExxonMobil, Shell, TotalEnergies CEOs Also Reported Out
BP canceled its attendance at the World Petroleum Council Energy Congress in Riyadh on Sunday after a missile attack on the city's international airport killed 13 people and wounded more than 300, Reuters reported — the first public pullback by a global energy major since the strike. The airport has been closed since Saturday's attack; Saudi authorities reported that people were injured in another attack on the airport on Sunday.
The five-day international energy conference went ahead as scheduled on Sunday at a convention center about 10 km (6.2 miles) from Riyadh airport, the Saudi energy ministry said. A BP spokesperson said the company had made every effort to participate but travel disruption prevented in-person attendance, adding that BP greatly values its longstanding partnerships across the region. BP CEO Meg O'Neill had appeared on previous agendas for the conference.
The Financial Times, citing people familiar with the matter, reported that the CEOs of ExxonMobil, TotalEnergies and Shell had been expected to attend but withdrew. Shell declined to comment, while TotalEnergies and ExxonMobil did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment made outside regular business hours.
GSM has previously reported on the airport attack and its aftermath; this is the industry reaction — the world's biggest energy conference proceeding as planned just 10 km from a strike site, with the top executives of the international energy majors absent.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 利雅得天际线（CC BY-SA 4.0，B.alotaby，Wikimedia Commons）
