By Thomas Kutty Abraham
June 3 (Bloomberg) -- Tropical cyclone Phet in the Arabian Sea is showing signs of weakening and may cross the Oman coast tomorrow morning, India’s weather office said today.
The storm, about 1,100 kilometers (684 miles) southwest of Kutch in Gujarat and packing winds of 60 kilometers an hour, may bring widespread rainfall in the state in the next 48 hours, the Indian Meteorological Department said on its website.
A dissipating storm may spare damage to the world’s largest oil refining complex run by Reliance Industries Ltd. and Essar Oil Ltd.’s Vadinar refinery in Gujarat state. Cylcone Laila in the Bay of Bengal two weeks ago forced Reliance to halt crude- oil production and Oil & Natural Gas Corp. to stop running rigs.
“The system is interacting with land surface and shows sign of weakening,” the India Meteorological Department said. The storm will cross the Oman coast tomorrow morning and then “re-curve” northeastward and emerge into the North Arabian sea on June 5 and move toward Pakistan coast, the office said.
Oman’s oil operations are so far unaffected by the storm, although some vessels may be delayed for a few hours, Mohammed al-Rumhy, the country’s oil minister, said by phone today from Muscat. The last major storm to hit the Arabian peninsula was Cyclone Gonu in June 2007, the strongest since records began in 1945, forcing a three-day closure of Oman’s ports.
Government agencies and emergency services were on high alert in Pakistan’s commercial capital of Karachi, home to the stock exchange and central bank. The navy started helicopter and plane services yesterday to ensure all fishermen returned home, spokesman Salman Ali said by telephone.
‘Losing Intensity’
“It has to cover 1,020 kilometers to reach Karachi so it could lose some intensity by the time it gets here,” Mohammad Riaz, chief meteorologist in Karachi, said by telephone.
The storm has stalled progress of monsoon to more parts of southern Karnataka and western Maharashtra states, India’s main coffee and sugar cane growing regions, said D. Sivananda Pai, a director at the weather office in Pune said. The weather system may resume its advance after the storm disintegrates, he said.
India’s 235 million farmers rely on the timing of the June- to-September monsoon rains to decide which crops to grow. Normal falls may lift farm output and cool food price gains after the weakest monsoon since 1972 last year cut rice and cane output.
Arable Land
Farmers in India, the second-biggest grower of rice, wheat and sugar, rely on the monsoon to water their crops as about 60 percent of arable land isn’t irrigated. Crops of rice, corn, lentils, cotton and soybeans are planted after the monsoon begins and harvested in winter.
The monsoon, which arrived over the mainland in southern state of Kerala on May 31, a day earlier than schedule, may now resume its advance after June 5, Pai said.
India is regularly buffeted by cyclones that form in the Bay of Bengal between April and November, bringing destruction and flooding to coastal communities. Tropical Cyclone Aila, which disrupted the monsoon last May, left 169 people dead and affected more than 7.7 million people in India and Bangladesh.
Rains this year may be 98 percent of the 50-year average, the Meteorological Department said April 23.
--With reporting by Khurrum Anis in Karachi and Ayesha Daya in Dubai. Editors: Ravil Shirodkar, Richard Dobson
To contact the reporter on this story: Thomas Kutty Abraham in Mumbai at tabraham4@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Poole at jpoole4@bloomberg.net.
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