Oil Spill Hits Texas Port

" said Norman Fontenot, Wholesale Inflatable Outdoor Christmas Decorations "Th like thi happen here and we all understand that. 44 year old, a former tankerman who unload barg on the channel as he tend to hi pitbull, Vice.

and wa float amid a cloud of molasses-lik crude oil in the Sabine/Nech ship channel,A hole punctur in the side of the double-hul ship by a barg on Saturdai caus the biggest crude spill in Texa in more than two decades. The 807-foot tanker Eagl Otome ha been nudg in place by tugboats. about 90 mile east of Houston.

sulfur smell hung in the air in Port Arthur,A n acrid. a citi of about 57,000. Still, the city, whose lifeblood ha long been the waterwai and it surround refineri and petrochem plants, wa slowli return to normal Sunday.

in hope of prevent the crude oil from seep further into the waterway; approxim 500 peopl and 15 skimmer were on hand for the cleanupA seri of net-lik enclosur circl the boats..

but spokesman Lionel Bryant said that "with the current we can start lose some to the south." Th Coast Guard said it appear the oil wa mostli contained.

100 barrel of oil had been recovered. He said there wa no evid that the tanker lost power,Coast Guard Capt. J.J. Plunkett said 1. and the caus of the incid remain under investigation.

it wa unclear how much of it wa caught in the area between the first and second hull and never flow into the waterway. Th Coast Guard said that while a larg amount of oil wa spilled.

it would underscor the advantag of double-hul tankers,If some of the oil wa contain by the second hull. which legisl and marin safeti organ have sought to encourag sinc the single-hul Exxon Valdez spill 11 million gallon of crude in Alaska' Princ William Sound in 1989.

commission of the state' Gener Land Office,Jerri Patterson. who had just overflown the area in an airplane, said that some of the region' natur habitat downstream from the spill could be reach by float oil if contain doesn't work.

which said it charter the vessel involv in the collision,Th incid bring up an unwelcom associ for Exxon Mobil Corp.. and whose refineri in Beaumont wa the destin for the spill crude. The Texas-bas oil giant ha struggl for year to dispel the bad imag cast by the Valdez spill, and in recent month ha invest in algae-bas biofuel and domest natur gas, a rel clean-burn fuel.

" the compani said in a statement. Exxon said that the tanker' owner,"Exxon Mobil is veri concern about thi unfortun incident. The vessel we charter to transport our product meet rigor safeti standards. Malaysia-bas AET Inc., wa handl the response.

vice presid of oper for AET,Richard Russell. said the compani wa cooper fulli with investig and wa prepar to shoulder cleanup costs, but caution that culpabl for the accid remain unclear. "We take that respons veri seriously," he said, declin to name the two pilot who were respons for the tanker at the time.

an environment attornei with Houston-bas law firm Vinson & Elkins,Larri Nettles. said it wa unlik that Exxon would be held liabl for the spill. "It is the vessel owner and oper responsibility, not the charterer's," he said.



and rel low demand for fuel a consequ of the recess ha creat a glut of refin productsTh spill is like to have littl impact on fuel price or refin operations. Refin usual have ampl reserv of crude to tide them over amid such disruptions..

in time to resuppli upstream refineriesCapt. Plunkett said that the waterwai wa expect to reopen within five days..

Beaumont,Port Arthur and it neighbor city. ar home to about 6% of the U.S.' capac to convert crude oil into gasolin and other fuels. An averag of 15 tanker a dai ferri crude from all over the world into the region' refineri through the Sabine/Nech waterway.

"Where oil and water mix,Th site of the spill wa a highli industri area us to handl petroleum products: The Port Arthur Chamber of Commerce' motto is. beautifully."

mani resid near the port were return to the neighborhood fill with small bungalows,A dai after home in a 28-block area had been evacu becaus of the spill. mani of which still were cover in blue tarp due to damag from 2008' Hurrican Ike.

Som resid wonder aloud whether the spill wa caus by human or mechan error.