Posted: Mon Nov 19, 2007 4:55 pm Post subject: Houston Ship Channel Closed due to Fog
Quote:
Nov. 19 (Bloomberg) -- The Houston Ship Channel, which serves the largest U.S. petroleum port, was closed to tanker traffic and other vessels because of fog.
The Houston waterway was shut down by pilots at 1:05 a.m. local time, delaying 13 incoming vessels and 11 outgoing ships, David Anderson, a spokesman for the U.S. Coast Guard, said today in a telephone interview. The Galveston and Texas City navigation channels were closed by their pilots at 5 a.m., delaying at least two arrivals, he said.
By the way, this is the coolest thing ever: real time tracking of ships around Houston. Click on the little marker and find out what type of ship, and the status.
Posted: Mon Nov 19, 2007 5:13 pm Post subject: Re: Houston Ship Channel Closed due to Fog
Wow, that is pretty cool. _________________ "The problems of today will not be solved by the same thinking that produced the problems in the first place." - Albert Einstein
Joined: Oct 23, 2004 Posts: 5882 Location: New Jersey
Posted: Mon Nov 19, 2007 6:14 pm Post subject: Re: Houston Ship Channel Closed due to Fog
This and the Thanksgiving holiday are bound mess up our best guesses as to the import figures used by the EIA. Since the EIA only counts shipments when offloaded, this may distort reported import amounts next week too. _________________ It's already over, now it's just a matter of adjusting.
Joined: Nov 18, 2004 Posts: 1082 Location: Central Texas
Posted: Mon Nov 19, 2007 6:33 pm Post subject: Re: Houston Ship Channel Closed due to Fog
Doesn't Aaron have a camera pointed out over the Houston shipping channel? It would be cool to have a "sticky" of the live video from his point of view.
The sites (linked above) to the Houston Shipping Channel cameras will get bookmarked.
Thanks Pupp. _________________ About my avatar: Guess.
There was a closure in December 2006 that lasted about 4 days, that resulted in a 2 million barrel drop in imports for that week, so .28 million barrel drop on the weekly report per day of downtime. This fog event also affected several other ports along the Gu;f.
on page 81-83 of the original Inventory Thread we noted that the ship channel experienced some downtime the week of Feb 22. 2 days of downtime caused a decrease of maybe .1 mbpd imports on the following weekly report. The following week, there were more like 3 days of downtime, and the result was a decrease in imports all the way to 8.9 mbpd, down from about 9.5 which is what the seasonality suggested. So, each day of closure of the Houston Ship Channel decreased imports somewhere in the neighborhood of .2 mbpd for the whole week.
The ship channel receives about 1.4 mbpd I think, so divided by 7=.2 that is about right. .2 mbpd decrease per day of downtime will be my new rule of thumb.
Naturally there will be a squirt back up the following week when everything cranks up again.
Posted: Mon Nov 19, 2007 10:03 pm Post subject: Re: Houston Ship Channel Closed due to Fog
Quote:
Nov. 19 (Bloomberg) -- The Houston Ship Channel, which serves the largest U.S. petroleum port, reopened to outbound tanker traffic after being closed early this morning because of fog.
The 54-mile (87-kilometer) waterway, which reopened at 12:30 p.m. local time, remains closed to inbound oil tankers and other vessels, said T.J. Nelson, a spokesman for the Houston Pilots Organization
The coolest thing about this is that the little map website posted above reflects this. All of the tankers (purple markers) are either moored, or heading outbound. A hootload of tankers are "at anchor" offshore, waiting for a chance to move.
The local weather is calling for patchy fog tonight and tomorrow, maybe some thunderstorms, then getting better by Thursday.
Joined: Oct 23, 2004 Posts: 5882 Location: New Jersey
Posted: Mon Nov 19, 2007 10:19 pm Post subject: Re: Houston Ship Channel Closed due to Fog
pup55 wrote:
Quote:
Nov. 19 (Bloomberg) -- The Houston Ship Channel, which serves the largest U.S. petroleum port, reopened to outbound tanker traffic after being closed early this morning because of fog.
The 54-mile (87-kilometer) waterway, which reopened at 12:30 p.m. local time, remains closed to inbound oil tankers and other vessels, said T.J. Nelson, a spokesman for the Houston Pilots Organization
The coolest thing about this is that the little map website posted above reflects this. All of the tankers (purple markers) are either moored, or heading outbound. A hootload of tankers are "at anchor" offshore, waiting for a chance to move.
The local weather is calling for patchy fog tonight and tomorrow, maybe some thunderstorms, then getting better by Thursday.
Wow, quite a traffic jam.
Thanks. _________________ It's already over, now it's just a matter of adjusting.
Joined: Nov 20, 2007 Posts: 2 Location: Galveston County
Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2007 9:41 am Post subject: Re: Houston Ship Channel Closed due to Fog
The Google Map view you see on the VesselTrax website is an 8 hour delay. Glad it was of help in obtaining a visual idea of the tanker ships that are delayed and anchored due to fog
Joined: Oct 23, 2004 Posts: 5882 Location: New Jersey
Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2007 11:29 am Post subject: Re: Houston Ship Channel Closed due to Fog
Looks like a lot of tanker workers will be spending Thanksgiving waiting to offload, even if the Channel reopens.
Quote:
Houston Channel May Reopen to Takers This Morning (Update1)
By Victor Epstein
Nov. 20 (Bloomberg) -- The Houston Ship Channel, which serves the largest U.S. petroleum port, may reopen to inbound oil tankers and other vessels this morning after being closed more than 31 hours because of fog.
Forty-four inbound and 18 departing vessels remain idled, T.J. Nelson, spokesman for the Houston Pilots Organization, said today in a telephone interview. When the channel reopens, he said, five inbound tankers will be brought in first. One of those ships is carrying liquefied natural gas.
The 54-mile (87-kilometer) waterway was closed to ships at 1:05 a.m. yesterday by the Houston Pilots Organization. The pilots reopened the channel to outbound traffic from 12:30 p.m. to 7:19 p.m., while keeping it closed to most inbound traffic.
Fog has been getting heavier since about 7:30 a.m. local time and may prevent pilots from moving ships through the waterway this morning as they had planned, said Garry Jarvis, a U.S. Coast Guard spokesman.
Last Updated: November 20, 2007 09:55 EST
Bloomberg _________________ It's already over, now it's just a matter of adjusting.
Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2007 5:11 pm Post subject: Re: Houston Ship Channel Closed due to Fog
Watermon:
Welcome to PO.com
Thanks for your hard work on VesselTrax site. The 8-hour delay does not matter too much for us, but we appreciate knowing this. The ETA in the little bubble for each vessel is interesting information for us too.
We have been having a hard time trying to estimate imports from week to week, but this tool gives us a chance to see what disruptions are around.
I hope you will see fit to do a similar website around the LOOP. That way, we would know what is going on with about 3/4 of the imports on the gulf coast, and about half of the imports in the US.
Joined: Nov 20, 2007 Posts: 2 Location: Galveston County
Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2007 5:24 pm Post subject: LOOP next project
pup55,
Thanks for the positive encouraging feedback. That means quite a bit to continue and strive to make the site more educational and informative to all the global viewers.
I've included the free 8 hour delayed site in order to be fair to the real time subscribers of VesselTrax Since 8 hours is not of critical economic use. But I'm glad that I'm able to share it with the Peak Oil viewers so everyone can have a conceptual idea of the importance of vessel traffic transporting petroleum products through one of the busiest ports in the nation
Concerning the static data such as ETA, That is not always accurate and I've found sometimes that it doesn't even get entered on a regular basis. It's up to the deck officers in the wheelhouse to enter this information in the automatic identification system..
Kind Regards,
Watermon _________________ John Astad
Maritime GIS Developer
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