World oil prices firm

“At this time it is expected that US facilities towards the east are expected to escape the trajectory.” Forecasters issued a hurricane warning on Tuesday as Tropical Storm Dolly threatened to grow into a hurricane within 24 hours near the Mexico-Texas border.

“A hurricane warning is in effect for the coast of Texas from Brownsville to Port O’Connor,” the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said at 0600 GMT. “A hurricane warning is also in effect for the northeast coast of Mexico from Rio San Fernando north to the border with the United States.” The warning means hurricane conditions are expected in the area in the next day. At 0600 GMT, the center of the storm was about 320 miles (515 km) southeast of Brownsville, Texas, as it moved westward near 17 mph (28 km/hr), the NHC said, noting that “the center of Dolly should be very near the western coast of the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday.”

It was packing maximum sustained winds near 50 mph (85 km/hr) with higher gusts.

US energy major ExxonMobil has started evacuating “non-essential” personnel from some offshore oil production facilities expected to be in Dolly’s path, but the company said there had been limited impact on production thus far.