Hurricane Ida on path to Gulf of Mexico oil fields

* U.S. oil companies shut production

* Floods, mudslides from rains kill 124 in El Salvador

By Nelson Renteria

SAN SALVADOR, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Hurricane Ida headed toward oil and gas facilities in the central Gulf of Mexico on Monday on a path to the U.S. Gulf Coast after killing 124 people in El Salvador following floods and mudslides.

U.S. oil companies were shutting production and evacuating workers from the Gulf in the face of Ida, a Category 2 storm with top sustained winds near 105 mph (165 kph).

Oil rose more than $1 to above $78 a barrel on Monday on fears of the hurricane. [ID:nSP381311]

The National Hurricane Center said Ida was expected to weaken but would likely remain a hurricane as it approached the northern Gulf Coast on Monday night or early on Tuesday. It was forecast to hit somewhere between Louisiana and Florida.

Several large producers shut down some oil and gas production as a precautionary measure.

The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, the only terminal in the United States capable of handling the largest tankers, said it would stop unloading ships due to stormy seas. [ID:nL9333753]

A quarter of U.S. oil and 15 percent of its natural gas are produced from fields in the Gulf and the coast is home to 40 percent of the nation's refining capacity.

In El Salvador, rivers burst their banks and hillsides collapsed under relentless rains triggered by Ida's passage, cutting off parts of the mountainous interior from the rest of the country.

El Salvador's government said 124 people were killed as mudslides and floods swept away rudimentary houses.

The bulk of the Central American country's coffee is grown in areas far from the worst affects of the flooding but the national coffee association had no estimate of potential damage to the harvest.

LOUISIANA STATE OF EMERGENCY