Hurricane Earl, 2 other storms no Gulf of Mexico threat

Hurricane Earl and Tropical Storm Fiona in a satellite image taken August 31, 2010.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The National Hurricane Center was monitoring powerful Hurricane Earl and two other tropical systems in the Atlantic on Tuesday, but computer models showed none were a threat to key oil and gas producing areas in the Gulf of Mexico.

Hurricane Earl, a major Category 4 storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale packing winds of 135 miles per hour, was about 190 miles north-northwest of San Juan, Puerto Rico, heading west-northwest at 13 mph as it began an expected trek that would take it north, just east of the U.S. East Coast.

The U.S. Coast Guard District 5, which covers New Jersey and Pennsylvania, said the impact of Earl was now expected to be less than originally thought as the storm veered further off the coast.

Sunoco Inc, which runs the Philadelphia and Marcus Hook refineries in Pennsylvania, said Tuesday the company was monitoring the storm closely and would take all necessary precautions to protect employees and safeguard equipment.

Tropical Storm Fiona, about 500 miles east of the Leeward Islands on Tuesday, had winds of about 40 mph as it moved quickly west-northwest at 24 mph, the NHC said.

Fiona was also expected to trek north to northwest in the Atlantic, but steer further east from the U.S. Atlantic Seaboard than Earl.

A broad area of low pressure about 400 miles southwest of the Cape Verde Islands in the eastern Atlantic had only a 10 percent chance to become a tropical cyclone during the next 48 hours. Early computer models showed that system moving mostly west in the Atlantic, but toward South America, not the energy-rich Gulf.

Meanwhile, the NHC issued its last advisory on former Hurricane Danielle late Monday after the storm began to weaken and was absorbed by a large nontropical low pressure system in the far northern Atlantic.

(Reporting by Eileen Moustakis; Additional reporting by Janet McGurty; Editing by John Picinich)