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A street damaged by tropical storm Alex near Acelhuate River in El Salvador - Source: Reuters -
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Tropical Storm Alex is set to strengthen into a hurricane,
delaying BP Plc's efforts to increase siphoning capacity at the
gushing oil well in the Gulf of Mexico where some companies
evacuated workers.
Alex was forecast to move slowly away from the Yucatan Peninsula
over southern Gulf waters and curl northwest away from major
oil-extraction facilities to make a second landfall in northern
Mexico mid-week.
It is not expected to hurt oil capture systems at the BP oil spill
or the company's plans to drill a pair of relief wells intended to
plug the leak by August, a BP executive told reporters in
Houston.
But waves as high as four metres would delay this week's plans to
hook up a third system to capture much more oil, said Kent Wells,
BP executive vice president.
As a precautionary measure, Shell Oil Co, Exxon Mobil Corp,
Anadarko Petroleum Corp and Apache Corp evacuated nonessential
workers from platforms near Alex's path. Shell also shut subsea
production at the Auger and Brutus platforms over the
weekend.
Traders and brokers kept a close eye on Alex, but oil prices fell
toward $78 per barrel today as most forecasters predicted the storm
would pass southwest of major US offshore oil and gas installations
in the Gulf of Mexico.
A hurricane watch has been issued for the coast of Texas south of
Baffin Bay to La Cruz in Mexico.
The ports of Dos Bocas and Cayo Arcas, which handle 80% of Mexico's
oil export shipping in the Gulf, have been closed since Monday due
to strong surf in the area.
State-run oil giant Pemex said its platforms in the Campeche Sound
continued to work normally today although it suspended helicopter
flights to and from the facilities.
Pemex said it is monitoring wind and surf conditions caused by
Alex. Its Isla del Carmen port, not essential for oil shipments,
has been closed since Monday.
Barbara Blakely, a spokeswoman for Shell, said the company was
closely monitoring Alex's advance in the Gulf but that its LNG
plant in Altamira, Mexico was working as usual.
Deaths in Central America
The storm is due to make landfall again between Brownsville, Texas,
and Ciudad Madero in Mexico at mid-week, mostly sparing BP oil
collection efforts south of Louisiana.
Alex, the first named storm of the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season,
gained some strength today with sustained winds of about 100 kph
with higher gusts and was located about 765 km southeast of
Brownsville, Texas. The system was moving north-northwest at 13 kph
today, the US National Hurricane Center said. Forecasters expect
the storm to turn toward the northwest later and then gradually
turn toward the west-northwest on Thursday.
"Additional strengthening is forecast... and Alex is expected to
become a hurricane on Tuesday," the center said on its latest
update.
At least 10 people have been killed in Central America since the
weekend in accidents related to Alex, local authorities
reported.
Three people died in El Salvador from flooding, two others were
killed in a landslide in Guatemala and five people were swept away
by swelling rivers in Nicaragua, emergency officials said.
Alex was expected to bring seven to 15 cm of rain to the Yucatan
Peninsula, southern Mexico and parts of Guatemala through Tuesday.
Isolated torrents of up to 23 cm were possible over mountainous
areas. Forecasters warned the rain could cause flash floods and
mudslides.
The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30 and
meteorologists predict this year will be a very active one.
Hurricanes feed on warm water and the sea surface temperatures in
the tropical Atlantic are higher than usual this
year.
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