Cyclone Gonu Batters Southern Iran 9:30am Hormuz

By Ryan Flinn and Aaron Sheldrick
June 7 (Bloomberg)

2am EST
7am GMT
10am Dubai
10am Muscat
9:30am Iran

Cyclone Gonu, the worst to hit the Arabian Peninsula in more than 60 years, battered southern Iran, prompting authorities to close schools and universities, cancel some flights and evacuate thousands of people from coastal areas.

The Health Ministry put hospitals on alert in southern Hormuzgan and Sistan-Baluchistan provinces late yesterday as the storm approached, the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported. The cyclone's outer winds knocked out electricity power lines in the port cities of Konarak and Chabahar, as people took refuge in shopping malls, IRNA said.

Gonu's center was 88 kilometers (55 miles) south of the town of Jask on the southern coast of Iran at 3:30 a.m. today, according to the latest U.S. Navy Joint Typhoon Warning Center advisory. Gonu's winds fell to 83 kilometers per hour as the storm moved north-northwest across the Gulf of Oman at 13 kilometers per hour.

The storm hit the east coast of Oman yesterday, where the Sultanate declared a state of emergency, ordering people to take shelter and shutting schools and offices until June 10. There were no immediate reports of casualties in either country.

Ships continued to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway between Iran and Oman at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, Associated Press reported, citing Suresh Nair of the Gulf Agency Co. shipping firm. At least a quarter of the world's oil supplies passes through the strait.

Oil Platforms

Gonu probably won't threaten Iran's oil platforms in the Persian Gulf because they are far from the forecasted path of the cyclone, AP cited Bahram Narimanian, a spokesman for Iran's Offshore Oil Company, as saying yesterday.

In the southeastern coastal city of Chabahar, 4,000 university students were evacuated to higher ground yesterday, IRNA reported.

The Islamic Republic of Iran Air Lines yesterday canceled all flights from Konarak for 48 hours, IRNA added.

Oman closed all its seaports and oil-export terminals two days ago as the government suspended oil and gas exports, shipping executives and oil traders said. They said they didn't know how long exports would remain suspended.

Oman sits on the southeast coast of the Arabian Peninsula and produces about 700,000 barrels of crude a day. It borders Yemen, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Suspending Operations

Fujairah port in the United Arab Emirates suspended all offshore bunkering operations, including fuel oil and gasoil, and the movement of utility boats two days ago because of the storm. The port is one of world's three largest for fuel oil bunkering, along with Rotterdam and Singapore.

Saudi Aramco, the world's biggest state-controlled oil company, said yesterday it doesn't expect Gonu to hurt production or exports from Saudi Arabia's eastern province.

Crude oil for July delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange traded at $66.00 a barrel at 8:33 a.m. Singapore time today. It rose 35 cents to $65.96 a barrel yesterday.

Gonu, which means a bag made of palm leaves in the language of the Maldives, is the most powerful storm to hit the Arabian Peninsula since records began in 1945, AP reported.

Earlier this week, it was a Category 5 storm, the strongest on the Saffir-Simpson scale, as it churned across the northern Arabian Sea.