Houston Ship Channel Resuming Traffic as Fog Lifts

Ship traffic was starting to resume on Friday along the Houston Ship Channel as dense fog that halted movements on Thursday began to lift, the U.S. Coast Guard said.

Petty Officer Andy Kendrick said that early on Friday, 26 inbound and 18 outbound vessels were waiting to move in the 53-mile (85 km) waterway to the busiest U.S. petrochemical port.

By midmorning, ships had begun moving in and out of Galveston, and Houston traffic was expected to follow suit as fog cleared, Kendrick said.

The eight refineries in Houston and Texas City account for about 12 percent of U.S. refining capacity. The plants have least a few days' crude supply on hand to carry through periods when tankers cannot reach them.

Reporting by Kristen Hays