VERACRUZ, Mexico (Reuters) - Hurricane Dean raced through Mexico's southern Gulf on Wednesday, whipping up wild winds and roaring seas around oil platforms that produce crude for export to the United States.

Dean hammered Mexico's Caribbean resort of Tulum and swallowed sand from the famous beach at Cancun before crossing the Yucatan Peninsula out into the Gulf of Mexico where state oil company Pemex has several hundred wells and other installation.

The storm was due to make landfall again on Wednesday afternoon north of Veracruz, a balmy city often compared to Havana. Sugar and coffee grows in the mountains behind the port.

The hurricane, carrying winds near 80 mph (130 kph) , was 155 miles east-northeast of Veracruz early on Wednesday morning. The storm that had diminished to a Category 1 hurricane could intensify before making landfall, the National Hurricane Center said.

Mexico evacuated over 18,000 Pemex staff and shut down 80 percent of its crude production ahead of the arrival of Dean, which was a potentially catastrophic Category 5 hurricane when it first hit land in Mexico's Caribbean coast.

There was no early word on whether oil platforms were damaged as Dean weakened and plowed through Gulf waters in the Campeche Sound.