First commercial vessel transits Texas waterway post spill

28 January 2010 05:30  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS news)--A commercial vessel has made the first transit of a waterway that was closed on Saturday following an oil spill at Port Arthur, Texas, the US Coast Guard said in a statement late on Wednesday.

Greek-flagged Maya was the first commercial ship to pass through the Sabine-Naches Waterway since an oil tanker collided with a barge on 23 January.  

The collision between the 800-foot Eagle Otome, loaded with Mexican crude, and the barge ripped a hole in the hull of the tanker and spewed 11,000 bbl of oil in the waterway, creating the largest oil spill in Texas since 1994.

An unnamed military ship had transited the waterway on Wednesday as a test run for allowing limited vessel movement through the channel.

More traffic was scheduled on Wednesday evening after the tanker was moved late on Tuesday, the Coast Guard said.

Around 6,343 barrels of crude had been recovered, evaporated or dispersed naturally since the collision and crews had begun unloading the tanker's remaining 570,000 barrels of oil from its undamaged cargo tanks on Wednesday, the Coast Guard added.

The busy waterway has been closed since the spill, leaving more than two dozen vessels stranded at or near Port Arthur.

Four oil refineries are located in the area, and one - Motiva - cut production at its Port Arthur plant following the incident.

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By: Nurluqman Suratman

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