MEXICO CITY, June 30 (Reuters) - Hurricane Alex moved slowly in Gulf waters on Wednesday, growing stronger and likely to come ashore later in the day but sparing Mexican oil rigs and U.S. oil fields to the relief of crude markets.
The first named storm of the Atlantic season had the potential to grow into a Category 2 storm on Wednesday after becoming a Category 1 hurricane late Tuesday night. It remained on a steady course far to the southwest of major U.S. offshore facilities.
While oil prices have fallen since Friday as Alex appeared to pose little threat to the U.S. Gulf oil patch, energy companies still shut down production of nearly 400,000 barrels per day of oil, about a quarter of the Gulf’s output, as a precaution, the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement said on Tuesday.
They have also shut 600 million cubic feet of gas output, some 9.4 percent of the Gulf’s total."
In Mexico, state-owned oil giant Pemex kept two of its key terminals in the Gulf of Mexico, which ship about 80 percent of the country’s export crude, shut since Sunday but offshore platforms operated normally despite the threat of the storm.
Alex could "begin to weaken after its center crosses the coastline," the U.S. National Hurricane Center said at 7 a.m. EDT (1100 GMT).
Rough seas and rain were hampering efforts to control damage left by the spill from the major leak at a BP Plc facility south of Louisiana.
Waves as high as 12 feet (4 metres) were expected to delay for several days BP’s plans to hook up another system to capture much more oil from the blown-out oil well.
Controlled burns of crude on the oil’s surface, flights spraying dispersant chemicals and booming operations were all halted on Tuesday, officials said.
The storm was not expected to interrupt the company’s plans to drill a pair of relief wells intended to plug the leak by August, BP has said.
Some energy companies evacuated personnel and shut down some production as a precautionary measure.
Houston Ship Channel traffic was halted due to rough seas from Alex, the U.S. Coast Guard said on Wednesday. Tankers on the channel provide crude oil to eight refineries in Houston and Texas City, Texas. The refineries account for more than 10 percent of U.S. refining capacity.
Forecasters expected Alex to make land on Wednesday night, bringing 6 to 12 inches (15 to 30 cm) of rain to northeastern Mexico and southern Texas as well as dangerous storm surges along the coast.
Alex had winds of 80 miles per hour (130 kph) and was located about 220 miles (355 km) southeast of Brownsville, Texas. It was moving west-northwest at 7 mph (11 kph), the Miami-based center said.
A hurricane warning was issued for the coast of Texas south of Baffin Bay down to the mouth of the Rio Grande, and along the coast of Mexico La Cruz. A tropical storm warning extended down to Cabo Rojo, just south of the port city of Tampico.
Officials in south Texas readied rescue vehicles, shelters in San Antonio and Laredo and rushed supplies to the Rio Grande Valley. Bob Pinkerton, mayor of South Padre Island, a coastal community where the entire economy rests on tourism, urged residents and visitors to evacuate. The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to Nov 30 and meteorologists predict an active storm season. Alex is the first June storm in fifteen years to gain hurricane strength in the Atlantic.
