An “active to extremely active” hurricane season which starts on June 1 is expected for the Atlantic Basin this year, US officials said.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA) said it was predicting three to seven major hurricanes, with eight to 14 smaller hurricanes, and 14 to 23 named storms would hit the region over the next six months.

This compares to an average of two major hurricanes, six smaller hurricanes and 11 storms per season. “If this outlook holds true, this season could be one of the more active on record,” said NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco.

Three to seven of those could be major Category 3 or above hurricanes, with winds of more than 110 miles per hour (177 km per hour), the agency said, echoing earlier predictions from meteorologists for a particularly severe season that could disrupt US oil, gas and refinery operations.

“If this outlook holds true, this season could be one of the more active on record,” said Jane Lubchenco, NOAA's administrator. “The greater likelihood of storms brings an increased risk of a landfall.” In addition to the risk that major hurricanes can pose to about one-quarter of US oil production and more than a 10th of natural gas output offshore in the Gulf of Mexico, this year's storms could threaten to complicate efforts to combat the environmental disaster of BP's gushing oil well.

The hurricane season peaks between late August and mid-October. An average Atlantic hurricane season brings 11 tropical storms with six hurricanes, including two major hurricanes, NOAA said.

The 2009 season, which had only three hurricanes and was the quietest year since 1997 due in part to the weather anomaly El Nino, followed several years of unusually intense activity that was particularly disruptive for US energy supplies.

Other US weather forecasters, including private and university researchers, also are predicting an active hurricane season.

Private forecaster WSI and Colorado State University's hurricane-forecasting team so far expect the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season to produce at least eight hurricanes, four of them major, posing a heightened threat to the US coastline.

CSU forecasters are expected to ramp up their prediction for the 2010 season in a report due out on June 2.

“The numbers are going to go up quite high,” William Gray, the hurricane forecast pioneer who founded CSU's storm research team, said on Wednesday. “This looks like a hell of a year.”