Tankers fighting delays in Houston Ship Channel
Houston’s highways are not the only thoroughfares where traffic is causing delays and raising stress levels.
The movement of a large container ship shut down two-way traffic along the Houston Ship Channel and delayed a crude-carrying vessel for 18 hours, according to a letter from the Coalition for a Fair and Open Port.
The coalition, made up of companies including Enterprise Products, Targa Resources Corp. and Kinder Morgan, wants to cap the number of 1,100-plusfoot container ships that come to Houston. The group fears that accommodating these ships could cause traffic jams on the Houston Ship Channel and ultimately hinder the shale boom.
That’s because the Houston Pilots, tasked with guiding vessels in and out of the channel, have enacted safety measures that allow moving these large container vessels only during the day. The channel’s typical two-way traffic is also reduced to just one-way traffic when pilots guide the massive container ships.
On Dec. 24, the afternoon departure of the 1,105-foot Pusan C container ship shut down in-bound traffic. That meant the Seletar Spirit, carrying crude, which can also only move during daylight hours, had to wait until the next day to enter the channel, according to a letter the coalition sent Wednesday to the Board of Pilot Commissioners for the Ports of Harris County.
“As the recent traffic has demonstrated,” the coalition said in its letter, “the impact from these very large container vessels is significant, and the time for action is now.”
The coalition has submitted a resolution to the Pilot Board requesting that no more than one of these especially large container ships enter Houston each week and that the ships be limited to one trip each day.
In a statement, Port Houston said a working group has been created by Janiece Longoria, chair of the Pilot Board and the Port Commission of the Port of Houston Authority. The coalition, Houston Pilots and other industry stakeholders are part of the working group. The statement said port officials are “continuing to work with the working group.”
Erik Eriksson, chief legal officer for Port Houston, previously said the pilots have historically put such safety measures in place while they got more comfortable with vessels. So as pilots gain experience with the larger container ships, Eriksson said, they could potentially take another look at the measures and ease them.