Reuters

Jun 5: An unusually powerful cyclone in the Arabian Sea has weakened slightly as it heads toward oil and gas terminals along the northeast corner of Oman, which it may pass over late this evening, forecasters said on Tuesday.

Tropical Cyclone Gonu, which earlier reached the equivalent of a maximum-force Category Five hurricane, helped drive oil prices up more than $1 on Monday on fears it would cut exports or disrupt Gulf shipments, which make up a fifth of the world's crude.

The world's top oil exporter, Saudi Arabia, said on Monday its main oil-exporting region would not be affected by the storm, but non-OPEC exporter Oman put its army and police on high alert.

In an updated status report as of 0300 GMT, the U.S. military's Joint Typhoon Warning Center said maximum sustained winds had eased to 135 miles per hour (mph), which would put the storm at the equivalent of a Category Four hurricane.

After passing Oman, it expects the storm to head toward Iran across the Gulf of Oman, a major shipping channel for Gulf crude oil exports.

The Weather Underground Web site earlier showed the storm passing directly over Oman's easternmost tip, which shelters a 10 million tonne per year liquefied natural gas export terminal at Sur and, further north, an oil terminal at Mina al Fahal, which ships all of the country's estimated 650,000 bpd of exports.

Sources at the both terminals told Reuters early on Tuesday that operations were continuing as normal for the moment, although they had been warned of the storm's approach.