LOOP says resumes offloading oil tankers Saturday

HOUSTON, May 23 (Reuters) - The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port resumed offloading crude oil from tankers in the Gulf of Mexico late Saturday morning, a spokeswoman said.

Rough seas on Thursday and strong ocean currents on Friday interrupted tanker offloading at the nation's only offshore oil port, through which about 10 percent of U.S. crude imports are received.

Weather conditions were favorable for the LOOP to continue offloading through the Memorial Day holiday weekend, spokeswoman Barb Hestermann said.

"We'll be pumping as fast as we can," Hestermann said.

A low pressure system in the eastern Gulf dumped rain and made seas rough from Florida to Louisiana this week.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said the system had moved ashore by Saturday afternoon and was not expected to develop into a tropical depression.

The LOOP continued to supply refiners from the millions of barrels of crude it has in storage onshore during the tanker offloading interruptions.

As of Friday the U.S. Minerals Management Service had not received reports of production interruptions from oil and natural gas platforms in the Gulf. (Reporting by Erwin Seba)