Oct. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Mexico shut schools and offshore oil wells as it braced for Tropical Storm Marco, with the system forecast to bring heavy rains and strong winds before possible landfall in Veracruz state today.

Marco was packing maximum sustained winds of almost 100 kilometers (65 miles) an hour and may approach hurricane strength -- 119 kph -- before it reaches the coast, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in an advisory on its Web site just before 8 a.m. Miami time. The system was about 125 kilometers southeast of Tuxpan, and moving west-northwest at 13 kph.

A tropical-storm warning and hurricane watch reach from Cabo Rojo south to Veracruz, the center said. ``On the forecast track the center of Marco should move inland within the warning area later today,'' it said.

The Veracruz state government said on its Web site it was closing schools in 12 districts and opening shelters. Petroleos Mexicanos, the third-largest supplier of crude to the U.S., closed six wells in the Gulf of Mexico and removed 33 workers from offshore platforms.

Output from the producer's Lankahuasa platform was shut at 3 p.m. yesterday, Mexico City-based Pemex, as the company is known, said in a statement on its Web site. The El Raudal natural-gas processing center was also shut, according to the statement.

The Cantarell oil field, the largest in Mexico and the third-biggest in the world, is in the Bay of Campeche, which is located at the southernmost bend of the Gulf of Mexico.

``Strong to intense'' rainfall is forecast, with up to 15 centimeters (6 inches) possible in the center and north of Veracruz state, the north of Puebla, east of Hidalgo and north of Oaxaca, Mexico's National Weather Service said on its Web site.

Hurricane Norbert

``Marco is an extremely small tropical cyclone,'' the U.S. center said, noting that tropical storm-force winds of at least 63 kph extended only 20 kilometers from the eye.

In the Pacific, Hurricane Norbert, with 120 kph winds, was 940 kilometers south-southeast of the southern tip of Baja California at 5 a.m. Miami time, the U.S. hurricane center said. The system is forecast to strengthen as it heads west-northwest at 13 kph, posing no immediate threat to land.

To contact the reporters on this story: Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.net; Chris Dolmetsch in New York at cdolmetsch@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: October 7, 2008 07:46 EDT