Hurricane Gustav barreled toward vulnerable Haiti on Tuesday and could become the first major storm to threaten US oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico since the devastating 2005 hurricane season.

The seventh storm of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season had top sustained winds of 90 mph (145 kph) by 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT), making it a Category 1 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale of storm intensity, the US National Hurricane Center said.