NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Hurricane Felix continued to track westward Tuesday across the southern Caribbean, taking aim at the Nicaragua-Honduras border and apparently steering well clear of vital U.S. energy infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico.
As of 6:40 a.m. Eastern time, Felix was a category 5 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 160 miles per hour, the National Hurricane Center said.
Felix is expected to produce heavy rainfall, pegged in a range of five to 10 inches but with the possibility of up to 20 inches in some areas, along with a storm surge of 18 feet or higher.
Some projected tracks for Felix have it crossing the Yucatan peninsula and entering the southern Gulf of Mexico, while others have it moving directly across Honduras and Guatemala.
In recent Nymex trading, the price on the benchmark crude-oil contract for October delivery was up 6 cents at $74.10 a barrel.
Felix is the second hurricane and the sixth named storm of the 2007 Atlantic season. Last month, Hurricane Dean left 20 dead after carving a destructive path from St. Lucia in the Caribbean to Mexico.
Hurricane Felix, the sixth named storm and second hurricane this season, has strengthened to a Category 4 hurricane. As of 5:00 EDT Sunday, it is located 440 miles off the coast of Kingston, Jamaica, in the Caribbean Sea.

It has maximum sustained winds of 140 mph (225 km/h), and 165 mph (266 km/h) gusts. It is moving at approximately 20 mph (32 km/h) to the northwest, into the warmer waters of the eastern Caribbean. It is still strengthening, and expected to reach Category 5 as it continues in warm waters.

Jamaica is on storm watch, as after being hit by Hurricane Dean last month there is a possibility of more damage. It is expected however that it will be outside the main areas of affect, which will be further south. The risks are mainly torrential rain, flash flooding, mudslides, and slips.

It is likely to affect the western coastal areas of Mexico with strong winds and four to eight inches (100 mm to 130 mm) of rain when it passes through there sometime this week.