Houston's CERAWeek conference has been canceled as a precaution to help prevent further spread of the coronavirus in the United States.

Houston’s CERAWeek conference has been canceled as a precaution to help prevent further spread of the coronavirus in the United States.

The event, which was scheduled to begin on March 9, is next expected to take place in Houston in 2021, from March 1-5. Delegates from over 80 countries were expected to participate in CERAWeek 2020.

“Over the last few days concern has mounted rapidly about the COVID-19 coronavirus,” IHS Markit said in a company statement.

“Our number one concern is the health and safety of delegates and speakers, our partners, our colleagues and vendors … We have made this decision reluctantly and after deep consideration,” IHS added.

A joint statement by the Mayor of Houston, Sylvester Turner, and IHS Markit Vice Chairman and CERAWeek Chair, Daniel Yergin, revealed that nothing specific to Houston led to the decision to cancel the event.

“The city of Houston reports that there are currently zero confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the city,” the joint statement read.

“The focus of concern was the number of delegates coming to Houston from more than 80 other countries at this particular time of uncertainty. For the same reason, IHS Markit has also cancelled two other international conferences this month scheduled for New Orleans and Long Beach, California,” the statement added.

On December 31, 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) was alerted to several cases of pneumonia in Wuhan City, Hubei Province of China. On January 7, Chinese authorities confirmed that they had identified a new virus. The new virus is a coronavirus, according to WHO, which is a family of viruses that include the common cold, SARS and MERS.

Following the outbreak of the new virus, several companies have cut their 2020 Brent oil price forecasts. In addition, the upcoming OPEC+ meetings on March 5 and 6 are said to now be on the critical path.

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