Tropical Storm Lorenzo heads for Mexico

Typography

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Lorenzo formed in the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday and headed for the Mexican coast but was unlikely to affect oil production in the area.

Lorenzo will probably hit the coastline on Friday in the state of Veracruz. It had wind speeds of 60 mph (95 kph) and showed no sign of reaching hurricane strength.

"No significant change in strength is forecast during the next 24 hours" the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Lorenzo formed in the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday and headed for the Mexican coast but was unlikely to affect oil production in the area.

Lorenzo will probably hit the coastline on Friday in the state of Veracruz. It had wind speeds of 60 mph (95 kph) and showed no sign of reaching hurricane strength.

"No significant change in strength is forecast during the next 24 hours" the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

Oil ports in the Mexican part of the Gulf were all open to shipping, although some reported sea swells of up to three feet (one meter).

Mexico's state oil firm Pemex has seen no impact on its oil installations from the storm and is not planning emergency measures, a company official said.

Another tropical storm, Karen, weakened since Wednesday as it churned through the Atlantic on Thursday 920 miles_(1,485 km) east of the Windward Islands. It is expected to lose more strength as it moves northwest, missing the Caribbean.

The 2007 Atlantic storm season has generated three hurricanes so far, including Hurricane Humberto, which startled coastal residents of Texas and Louisiana in mid-September by unexpectedly strengthening into a hurricane before landfall, and two ferocious maximum-strength Category 5 hurricanes.

One of the Category 5 hurricanes, Dean, swiped Jamaica and then plowed into Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. The other, Felix, tore into Central America.