Ship Channel Opening Attempt Fails

The U.S. Coast Guard failed in its weekend attempt to reopen the Lake Charles, Louisiana, ship channel to all ships including large crude oil tankers, a spokesman said.

The Coast Guard will now dismantle the sunken dry dock that has since mid-June stopped crude tankers getting to two big Gulf Coast refineries served by the channel. Work will start on Wednesday and take three to four weeks. Currently large crude vessels still cannot get to Conoco Inc.'s 243,000 bpd Lake Charles plant and Venezuelan-owned Citgo Corp.'s 310,000 bpd plant, the spokesman said.