Tropical Storm Dolly May Become Hurricane in Gulf (Update4)
By Demian McLean
July 21 (Bloomberg) -- Tropical Storm Dolly entered the Gulf of Mexico, where it may strengthen into a hurricane in the next day while sparing Mexico's state-owned oil rigs. A hurricane watch was issued for Texas's southern coast.
Dolly's center was about 55 miles (105 kilometers) north- northeast of Progreso, Mexico, and heading west-northwest above the area's warm waters, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said just before 11 a.m. Miami time. Sustained winds were about 50 miles per hour.
A three-day forecast shows Dolly crossing the Gulf and making landfall near Brownsville, Texas, along the Mexican border. It could become a hurricane by tomorrow, packing winds of at least 74 mph, the center said. The watch means hurricane conditions are possible in the area within 36 hours.
``The storm is not expected to affect U.S. oil and natural- gas operations in the Gulf,'' AccuWeather.com forecaster Kate Wotring said in an e-mail. Heavy rains and high surf could hit the Gulf Coast from Louisiana to Mexico by tomorrow, bringing waves of up to 6 feet (1.8 meters), Wotring said.
Petroleos Mexicanos, the third-largest oil supplier to the U.S., said oil workers would stay put, as the storm is likely to pass north of its drilling platforms.
Pemex and Shell
Pemex closed an oil export terminal in the Gulf. The terminal at the port of Cayo Arcas shut at 10 p.m. yesterday, said Ivan Alberto Avalos, a spokesman for the port, in a telephone interview. Pemex is Mexico's state oil company.
Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe's biggest oil company, said it evacuated about 125 workers from oil platforms in the Gulf yesterday and will remove 60 others today. Exxon Mobil Corp., the world's biggest energy company, said it was preparing platforms for heavy rain and high winds.
The Texas hurricane watch stretches from Brownsville north to Port O'Connor, along the southern portion of Texas's coastline, according to the latest public advisory from the National Hurricane Center.
Dolly's tropical storm-force winds, of at least 39 mph, extend outward by up to 175 miles and may affect the western tip of Cuba with gusts today, the center said. The storm is moving at about 18 mph.
To the northeast, Tropical Storm Cristobal continued away from North Carolina's Outer Banks islands and was about 190 miles east-northeast of Cape Hatteras, the center said. Packing maximum sustained winds of 65 mph, the system was moving northeast at 13 mph.
``On this track Cristobal will be well offshore of the mid- Atlantic coast later today,'' the center said.
To contact the reporters on this story: Demian McLean in Washington at dmclean8@bloomberg.net;
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