Over the weekend, the US Coast Guard stated that the Calcasieu Channel in Louisiana will now allow vessels with drafts less than 36 feet (11 meters) to transit there in the midst of the cleansing the aftereffect of Hurricane Delta.
Vessels with a draft of more than 25 feet but less than 36 feet can travel the channel but only with a local pilot during daylight hours. However, ships with a 40-foot deep draft are still forbidden to enter it, with no certainty when will the channel be able to accommodate full traffic.
On a related note, on Monday, the Army Corps of Engineers said that the US navy is in the midst of removing a sunken rock barge in the channel. The corps has removed an oil rig and an old sunken shrimp boat from the channel, but there is still a dredge addressing shoaling in the bar channel, which extends into the Gulf of Mexico.
The channel enables vessels to access the Cameron liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plant, oil refineries in Lake Charles owned by units of Citgo Petroleum Corpand Philips 66, and other energy facilities.
