The heavy fog which blocked all vessel traffic in the US Houston Ship Channel for four days, has cleared enough to allow the Houston Pilots to continue boarding all vessels.
The channel continued its operations yesterday around 11 am local time with boarding of in-bound vessels only, according to Gulf Agency Company Limited (GAC) USA.
GAC added that a number of vessels was waiting to pass and that inbound traffic could take a day or two to clear up.
Boarding of outbound vessels was resumed at 2 am, as informed by Platts.
“There are 43 tankers currently anchored offshore in the Galveston Fairway Anchorage of the 60 vessels there currently. The Houston Pilots have a total of 12 inbound and 5 outbound pilot orders between all of the vessels through 2 to 12 Dec so far,” GAC said in a statement.
The company added that out of the 43 tankers it is unknown how many tankers are awaiting discharge.
Any delay in vessel movements in the 52-mile ship channel has an impact on the delivery and loading schedules of crude oil, petroleum and petrochemical products.
World Maritime News Staff