Hurricane Ike to strengthen before hitting Texas

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Hurricane Ike will mushroom into a powerful Category 3 storm as it swirls west across the Gulf of Mexico before slamming into the oil-rich north-central Texas Coast early Saturday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center forecast on Thursday.

Ike is still a Category 2 storm with winds near 100 miles per hour (161 km per hour) but is expected to strengthen into a strong Category 3 storm with winds of 111 to 130 mph within 12 hours before striking the Texas Coast.

The center of the storm was located about 580 miles (933 km) east-southeast of Corpus Christi, Texas, and about 470 miles east-southeast of Galveston, Texas, the NHC said in its 11 a.m. EDT report.

The weather models show Ike could hit anywhere from the central Texas coast to the Louisiana border.

Energy traders watch for storms that could enter the Gulf of Mexico and threaten U.S. oil and natural gas infrastructure along the coast.

Commodities traders likewise watch storms that could hit agriculture crops such as citrus and cotton in Florida and other states along the Gulf Coast to Texas.

(Reporting by Scott DiSavino; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)