Tropical disturbance off Mexico is lessening threat

MIAMI, June 28 (Reuters) - A disorganized mass of thunderstorms over Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula had only a small chance of developing into a tropical cyclone, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said on Sunday.

The system was expected to drift northwestward over the Gulf of Mexico for the next day or two, forecasters at the hurricane center in Miami said.

"There is a low chance, less than 30 percent, of this system becoming a tropical cyclone during the next 48 hours," they said.

If it developed swirling sustained winds of 39 mph (63 km per hour) it would become Tropical Storm Ana, the first named storm of the 2009 Atlantic-Caribbean hurricane season, but the forecasters said the chances of that happening had dropped during the weekend.

Computer models diverged widely on the system's path, putting its eventual destination anywhere along the Gulf of Mexico from central Florida to northern Mexico.

Energy traders were monitoring the system in case it affected oil and natural gas platforms and refineries along the Gulf coast.

(Reporting by Jane Sutton; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)