In neighbouring Iran, where the much weakened storm was expected to make landfall Thursday night, three people have already been killed in heavy weather and authorities have warned that more casualties could be expected.

The storm had raised fears about oil shipments in the Strait of Hormuz, through which about one quarter of the world's crude supplies pass.

But United Arab Emirates Oil Minister Mohammed al-Hameli, who is also president of OPEC, said the storm had not affected shipping through the straits.

"Shipping is normal in the Straits of Hormuz, which are and which will remain open for petroleum exports from the region," he was quoted by the official WAM news agency as saying.

OPEC powerhouse Saudi Arabia, which lies west of Oman, said it did not expect the storm to affect its oil-producing regions, which lie well to the west of the generally northward moving storm.

A maritime official in Oman, which is not a member of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, said the sultanate's main oil terminal at Mina al-Fahal was closed but that supplies are not facing severe disruption as it is expected to reopen on Friday.

Also closed was the nearby Port Sultan Qaboos, Oman's largest cargo facility in the capital, Muscat. It too is expected to resume operating on Friday.

"We are working to reopen it tomorrow," Saud al-Nahari, chief executive of the Port Services Corporation, told AFP.

The Port of Sohar, situated 240 kilometres (155 miles) northwest of Muscat, reopened at 0800 GMT, port controller Mohammed al-Nofli told AFP by telephone, while adding that no ships had yet entered the port.

Oman was lashed with driving rain and heavy wind on Wednesday as thousands of people were evacuated in the face of the storm. Television broadcast footage of overturned cars and flooded roads on the battered east coast, and a police spokesman said officers even had to use jet skis in some areas of the seaside capital.

As the sunshine returned to the normally dry sultanate, residents ventured into the open to find trees and road signs uprooted and debris washed up along the shore.

In Iran, where three fatalities were reported and authorities warned of more, tens of thousands of people hunkered down in shelters.

The first winds and rain hit Iran's southern coast late on Wednesday, packing winds of 200 kilometres (125 miles) an hour and damaging clay-built houses ill equipped to withstand the storm.

But the US Joint Typhoon Warning Center said on Thursday that Gonu, which was tracking north-northwest, had weakened to a tropical storm and should make landfall in Iran on Thursday night. By then it forecast winds of only 25 knots, with gusts up to 35.

Officials said more than 40,000 people had been evacuated to higher ground from coastal areas in the southern Sistan-Baluchestan and Hormozgan provinces.

Three people were killed in Iran's southern port of Bandar-e Jask when a river burst its banks and floodwaters overturned their vehicle, an official said.

There were no reports to damage to any oil rigs or refineries in the region, and most of Iran's operations are concentrated much farther to the northwest.

State media said the severity of the storm in Chahbahar and Konark, around 100 kilometres (60 miles) from the Pakistani border, was unprecedented in the past three decades and water levels were still rising.

Hospitals in both provinces were on alert for storm victims.

Gonu, whose name in the language of the Maldives means a bag made of palm fronds, was the strongest to lash the Arabian peninsula since 1977.

Oil experts said any impact on world oil prices would be temporary provided facilities stayed intact.

The price of oil climbed amid news of a fall in US refinery production and cyclone-related concerns.

Brent North Sea crude for July delivery advanced 34 cents to 71.36 dollars per barrel in electronic deals, after rising as high as 71.56 dollars.

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