Depression may form in Mexico's Bay of Campeche - NHC

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A low pressure system in the oil-rich Bay of Campeche in the southwest Gulf of Mexico has a 20 percent to 50 percent chance of developing over the next 48 hours, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in a report Monday.

Mexico's biggest oil field, the Cantarell Field, is located in the Bay of Campeche.

The NHC said the low would likely move west during the next 12 to 24 hours and some development was possible before it moved inland over mainland Mexico Monday night or Tuesday.

Regardless of development, the NHC warned that locally heavy rains and the potential for flash floods and mudslides were possible over coastal regions of southern Mexico near the Bay of Campeche.

The weather models forecast the system would likely not threaten the oil and gas facilities off the U.S. Gulf Coast.

If the system develops into a tropical storm, with winds of 39 to 73 miles per hour, it will be named Marco.

Energy traders watch for storms that could enter the Gulf of Mexico and threaten oil and gas production facilities.

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.

Separately, an area of low pressure developed over the far eastern Atlantic about 400 miles southwest of the Cape Verde Islands. The NHC gave the system less than a 20 percent chance of developing over the next 48 hours due to unfavorable environmental conditions.