Cyclone Gonu Pummels Oman
By Aaron Sheldrick and Ryan Flinn
June 6 (Bloomberg)
Cyclone Gonu pummeled the northeast coast of Oman, where authorities ordered people to take shelter. The storm's winds weakened to 147 kilometers per hour (91miles per hour) as Gonu's eye skirted the coast southeast of Muscat.
The center of the cyclone, the worst to hit the Arabian Peninsula in more than 60 years, was 183 kilometers southeast of Muscat at 4 a.m. Oman time today, according to the latest advisory on the Web site of the U.S. Navy Joint Typhoon Warning Center. The storm is moving northwest at 15 kilometers per hour.
The Sultanate's civil defenses were mobilized, according to the Ministry of Information, as the country's meteorological agency warned waves as high as 12 meters (39 feet) would hit coastlines. The government declared a state of emergency, ordered people to take shelter and shut schools and offices till June 10. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage. Gonu's eye is forecast to be close to Muscat by about 4 p.m. today before heading for the Strait of Hormuz and making landfall in southern Iran by June 8 or 9, according to U.S. Navy forecasters.
By the time it reaches the Omani capital, the storm's winds are expected to slow to 120 kilometers per hour, with gusts to 184 kilometers per hour.
Gonu is the most powerful storm to hit the Arabian Peninsula since records began in 1945, the British Broadcasting Corp. said. Earlier this week, it was a Category Five storm, the strongest on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, as it churned across the northern Arabian sea.
The government closed all ports and oil export terminals from 2 p.m. yesterday. The country produces about 700,000 barrels of crude oil a day.
Crude oil for July delivery rose as much as 28 cents, or 0.4 percent, to $65.89 a barrel in after-hours electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It traded at $65.82 at 10:26 a.m. Singapore time.
The rise was attributed to refinery maintenance in the U.S. which may limit increases in gasoline supplies.
Almost a quarter of the world's oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway between Iran and Oman at the mouth of the Persian Gulf.
