CHETUMAL, MEXICO, Aug 9: Tropical storm Ernesto moved into the southern Bay of Campeche in the Gulf of Mexico, where the country’s main oil operations are located, after dumping heavy rains on the Yucatan peninsula.
The storm spared major tourist areas on the Yucatan coast from a direct hit and landed in sparsely populated low-lying jungle late on Tuesday. It made land as a Category 1 hurricane, the lowest on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, and was downgraded to a tropical storm early yesterday.
Ernesto was moving toward the west and this general motion, accompan ied by fluctuations in forward speed, is expected to continue for the next 24 to 36 hours, the US National Hurricane Center in Miami said at 11 pm EDT (0830 IST).
“The center of Ernesto will move across the extreme southern Bay of Campeche tonight and early Thursday,” the center said. State oil company Pemex has port facilities and offshore platforms in the area.
The Mexican government issued a hu rricane warning for the Gulf coast from Veracruz to Chilitepec. A tropical storm warning was also issued from north of Veracruz to Barra de Nautla.
Ernesto was located 25 km north of Ciudad del Carment i n the state of Campeche. Hurricane conditions were possible again by Thursday as the storm approaches the Gulf coast, the center said.
Mexico closed its three major oil export ports on the Gulf of Mexico – Coatzacoalcos, Cayo Arcas and Dos Bocas – port authorities said.
Almost all of Mexico’s crude oil exports are shipped to refineries on the Gulf Coast of the United States from the three ports.
“The prognosis is to be operational again on Thursday,” said Dos Bocas official Guadalupe Perez. “But we don’t know when it will open. It depends on the size of the waves.”
The storm looked set to sweep the Minatitlan refinery, which processes 185,000 barrels per day.
(agencies)
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