Unipec, the trading arm of Chinese state-owned oil major Sinopec, has asked the employees in its London office to work from home amid fears over the coronavirus epidemic.
The work-from-home policy came into effect on Monday after one of the employees developed flu-like symptoms, Bloomberg reported.
“Today is the first day the policy for the London staff is effective. It was a short notice and it is not certain how long this will continue for,” a source close to the company told TradeWinds.
Sinopec did not immediately reply to an email seeking further details.
The precautionary measure came as Public Health England’s medical director Paul Cosford told to the BBC that widespread transmission of Covid-19 coronavirus in the UK is highly likely.
As of Monday, a total of 36 people have been tested positive for the new, deadly virus that was first reported in central China.
Last week, Chevron closed its office in Canary Wharf for three days after one worker had flu-like symptoms.
The US oil major has reportedly reopened the London office this week after the person was tested negative for the coronavirus.
Top charterer
Unipec’s London office, located in Shepherds Bush, is mainly responsible for oil trading and tanker chartering operations for the European and West African markers.
At a global scale, Unipec is the world’s largest charterer of vessels shipping crude and dirty petroleum products in tonnage terms.
According to Poten & Partners, Unipec fixed 1,058 dirty tankers in spot trade last year to carry 231m tonnes of oil, accounting for 17% of the world’s total.
The company was the largest VLCC charterer while ranking No 2 in the suezmax segment and No 5 in aframax.
The numbers of Unipec’s VLCC and aframax fixtures for last year were almost equivalent to those of 2018, but the company hiked its suezmax fixtures to almost 170 from fewer than 120.
