The weather phenomenon which began as a tropical storm is now slated to become Hurricane Alex. This news comes at a crucial time in the oil recovery process, as BP wants to step up the siphoning capacity. With some companies pulling workers from the site, it will be difficult to increase or even maintain the current level of recovery. Those companies include Shell Oil, Exxon Mobil, and Anadarko Petroleum.Alex’s path will take it away from the Yucatan Peninsula and move it south, out over the Gulf. It is then expected to move northwest, away from the extraction sites, and make landfall in the north of Mexico around the middle of the week. While the storm should not damage current recovery systems, the presence of 12-foot waves would force a halt in the construction of a third oil-capture system later this week. BP insists, however, that they are still on schedule in their plans for two wells which it hopes will stop the leak by August.Tuesday morning, Alex’s wind speed was clocked at 70 mph, with a north-northwest speed of 8 mph. The storm has already led to 10 confirmed casualties from flooding and landslides in Central America, and is the first storm of the hurricane season. However, scientists predict it will not be the last in the period, which covers June 1 to November 30. Higher surface temperatures in the Atlantic this year will provide ample energy for the formation of new storms.As a result of the storm, oil barrel prices have fallen to 78. Some ports in the Gulf, including Dos Bocas, Cayo Arcas, and Isla del Carmen, have been closed since Sunday night in anticipation of the storm.