Over 60 ships are at anchor in the Houston area after six days of dense fog forced intermittent closures of the Houston Ship Channel, the waterway feeding the nation's busiest oil and petrochemicals port. Energy experts have said the disruptions could cut into commercial crude oil and fuel stockpiles in the United States, and could potentially force refiners along the channel to reduce gasoline and distillate production. But so far, area refiners say the delays in crude shipments are not causing operational difficulties. "We're still fine and are expected to remain so as long as there are breaks in the fog, which there have been thus far," said Mary Rose Brown, a spokeswoman for Valero Energy Corp, the nation's largest independent oil refiner.
Dense fog forced the temporary closure of the Houston Ship Channel for the sixth consecutive day on Tuesday, although improved visibility allowed the Houston Pilots Association to resume moving ships into the port briefly at midday and again in the afternoon. Heavy fog has regularly disrupted shipping along the Gulf Coast from Texas City, Texas, to Lake Charles, Louisiana, since last Thursday, with the Houston area hardest-hit. Deer Park Refining, a joint venture between Royal Dutch Shell and Mexico's state oil company, Pemex, said Monday its operations had been only minimally affected by the disruptions to crude supply. A spokesman for the Sabine River Pilots Association, which operates the shipping channel into Port Arthur, Texas, said Tuesday that the port had reopened and that a backlog of 16 vessels waiting to enter the port was being reduced.