"Tropical storm Carlotta strengthened off Mexico's Pacific coast on Thursday and was expected to become a hurricane on Friday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said."
"Carlotta, the third named storm of the Pacific hurricane season, is set to graze the coastline south of tourist city Acapulco and pass north of Mexico's largest oil refinery.
State oil company Pemex said it was monitoring the storm and the 330,000 barrel per day (bpd) refinery was operating normally on Thursday.
Carlotta's path is far from the Baja California resort of Los Cabos where world leaders are set convene next week for the Group of 20 leaders of top economies on June 18-19."
Gabriel Stargardter reports for Reuters with Mica Rosenberg and Lizbeth Diaz June 15, 2012.
