Hurricane Dean Threatens Mexican Oil Rigs

All eyes are on the eastern coast of the Yucatan Peninsula this morning, as the sun comes up on raging surf, driving rains and intense winds, courtesy of Hurricane Dean, a Category 5 monster. They will soon turn to the gas pump down the street.

While the monster storm will lose strength as it travels across land, it is expected to retain hurricane strength -- possibly as a Category 2 storm -- when it reaches the Gulf of Mexico on the far side of the Peninsula -- where significant Mexican oil infrastructure sits. National Hurricane Center

There are 407 offshore oil wells along Mexico's Gulf Coast -- in the bowl of the backwards-J made by the Yucatan and the Mexican heartland -- according to a story in today's USA Today. The paper quoted an expert predicting $4 a gallon gas if heavy damage disrupts shipments to the United States.

The Oil Drum, a blog focused on the concept of peak oil and related energy issues, analyzed the storm's trajectory and concluded, yesterday that there was "a good likelihood that Dean will impact significantly the Cantarell and the KMZ oil complex which constitute the backbone of the Mexican production."

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