Cyclone Gonu pummelled Oman yesterday, halting oil and gas exports for a second day and forcing thousands to flee the coast, but weakened as it moved through the Arabian Sea, a major route for Gulf oil shipments.

The storm, which peaked to a maximum-force Category Five hurricane on Tuesday, has been downgraded to a Category One hurricane, with a maximum sustained wind speed of about 75 mph, the US military's Joint Typhoon Warning Center said.

Oman's meteorology department said the storm's center made landfall in Oman around midnight and was moving northwest to Muscat, bringing torrential rains, strong winds and high waves.

"The eastern region has absorbed most of the impact but we expect the rain to continue tonight and early tomorrow as the cyclone moves northwest over Oman," said director Ahmed al-Harthi.

"There could be local rainfall on Friday but it should have finally dissipated by then."

The Joint Typhoon Warning Center said it would reach Iran in the next two to three days but would continue to weaken.

A senior Iranian oil official said the cyclone was not expected to disrupt supplies from OPEC's number two exporter as its main terminals were inside the Persian Gulf waterway.

In Oman, however, the country's only outlet for 650,000 barrels per day of crude exports, Mina al-Fahal, was shut for a second day as was the Sur terminal, which handles 10 million tons per year of liquefied natural gas.

The United Arab Emirates' eastern port of Fujairah on the Arabian Sea has been cleared of anchored vessels and is closed to all ships until further notice, the state news agency said.

More than 100 ships are anchored along the Fujairah coastline and around 180 vessels, mainly oil tankers, pass through the area daily.

Lieutenant Commander Marn Balolong, meteorologist on the USS Nimitz, which is in the Gulf, said it would be unsafe for ships to pass through the Strait of Hormuz in the next 48 hours but said they would speed up after that to return to schedule.

But shipping sources there had been no disruption to oil tanker transit so far.

No casualties confirmed

Strong winds and heavy rain turned the deserted streets of Muscat into rivers as people heeded warnings to stay at home or shelter in buildings that could withstand strong winds.

"So far we have not confirmed any casualties. But the power is out and phones are disconnected in many areas so we just don't know for sure," said Abdallah al-Harthi, spokesman for the Oman relief committee.

Gonu has caused some material damage on the coast of both Oman and the UAE but not on a catastrophic scale. Waves pounded the eastern coast of the UAE and some people were evacuated.

All private and public sector institutions, including the stock exchange, were closed until Sunday due to the storm.

Oman's airport was closed, an airport official said.

The port of Sohar, north of Muscat, was effectively closed too but had not been expecting any ships anyway.

Oman's weather center, which has been keeping records since 1890, says Gonu could be the strongest storm to reach Oman's coast since 1977 though meteorologists say milder tropical storms are common in the region from mid-May to the end of June.

Iranian state television said waves had reached six meters high and coastal residents had been told to avoid travel by sea.

To the sheltered west of Oman, the world's top oil exporter Saudi Arabia, said on Tuesday that its main oil region was safe though it was monitoring the storm and had an emergency plan.

(China Daily via agencies June 7, 2007)