Tropical Storm Gustav is about to affect Cuba – but has his eyes set on the Gulf of Mexico. 

Projected Path by weather.com

Get ready to possibly pay more at the pump as oil firms begin to evacuate staff from their offshore rigs through the Gulf of Mexico due to Tropical Storm Gustav.  The warm waters in the Gulf, which is home to some of the world’s largest rigs, is expected to increase the tropical storm into a Category 3 or 4 hurricane (5 being the maximum).  Significant damage to the oil rigs could cause the oil prices to stay up – which may affect New Zealand motorists.

According to rigzone.com 85% of the oil rigs are expected to be shut down – that’s a quarter of the US oil production – along with 15% of natural gas.

US Crude oil jumped $2 a barrel overnight as forecasters strengthened their warnings for the region.    Forecasters are predicting sustained winds of 179km/h.

However the sunny weather this weekend has prompted Gull to cut the price of petrol by 5cents a litre for 24 hours:  http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10529515

TROPICAL STORM GUSTAV

Tropical Storm Gustav squeezing between Jamaica and Cuba this afternoon.  Image updated hourly.

Gustav made landfall along the southern coast of Haiti yesterday afternoon as a hurricane, then weakened to a tropical storm overnight. The storm is creeping westward now, away from the rugged terrain of Haiti’s southwestern peninsula, and is likely to restrengthen.

Gustav should pass between Jamaica and the southeast coast of Cuba later tonight NZT. Heavy rain along with life-threatening flash flooding and mudslides will continue over Hispaniola today, then gradually shift into eastern Cuba, Jamaica and the Cayman Islands.

For more on this major storm, go to weather.com