CERAWeek 2020 cancelled amid growing COVID-19 concerns

The CERAWeek 2020, originally scheduled to kick off on March 9 in Houston, U.S. state of Texas, was cancelled, the conference organizer announced Sunday, citing concerns over coronavirus.

In a statement issued on Sunday, IHS Markit, a global financial information and services company, said as the spread of COVID-19 is moving quickly around the world, it has to decide to cancel the conference "with deep disappointment."

"Over the last few days concern has mounted rapidly about the COVID-19 coronavirus. The World Health Organization raised the threat level on Friday, the U.S. government cancelled a summit meeting scheduled in Las Vegas, an increasing number of companies are instituting travel bans and restrictions, border health checks are becoming more restrictive and there is growing concern about large conferences with people coming from different parts of the world."

According to IHS Markit, delegates from over 80 countries and regions were expected to participate in CERAWeek 2020.

The CERAWeek, an annual energy conference held in March, is usually attended by around 5,000 people across the world.

During the CERAWeek 2019, there was a special dialogue on China, as well as several discussions, designed to focus on Asian and Chinese energy market since China has become one of the largest energy consumption economies in the world.