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Diesel Spilled After Collision Near Port Arthur

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File image via social media

Published Nov 18, 2019 7:26 PM by The Maritime Executive

The U.S. Coast Guard is investigating the circumstances behind a collision between the OSV Cheramie Botruc 22 and the tug Mariya Moran last week near Port Arthur, Texas, which led to a large fuel spill.

Coast Guard Sector Houston-Galveston received a report of a collision near the entrance to Sabine Pass, Texas onThursday morning. Coast Guard Station Sabine, Coast Guard Marine Safety Unit Port Arthur, the Texas General Land Office, Oil Spill Removal Organization, OMI Environmental Solutions and Environmental Safety and Health responded to the scene and confirmed that one of the two vessel's fuel tanks had been breached. 

An estimate of 3,000 gallons of diesel fuel was released into the waterway. According to the Coast Guard, the source of the release has been secured and the spill has been contained. Boom and sorbent material have been placed around the vessel, and no injuries were reported.

The Coast Guard and Texas General Land Office will monitor the ongoing response effort. 

The Botruc 22 is a 180-foot twin-screw PSV built in 1975. As of Monday evening, she was moored at Sabine on the Texas side of the channel. The Mariya Moran is a large ATB tug, and she is typically operated as a unit with the 425-foot, 150,000-barrel capacity ATB barge Texas. As of Sunday she was under way once more in the Gulf of Mexico. 

USCG oversees controlled burn

Separately, the Coast Guard said that Monday it would oversee a "controlled burn" to mitigate an oil spill from a flowline near Bayou Perot, Lafourche Parish, Louisiana. Local media reported the site as the West Delta Farms oil field, located to the northeast of the town of Larose. 

The operator shut down the flowline and responders boomed off the oil spill, but about 340 gallons of crude escaped into the environment. The spill is trapped within a floating marsh (flotant) and cannot be recovered by standard methods. OMI Environmental Solutions and T&T Marine Salvage have been hired by the pipeline operator to burn off the oil in order to minimize harm.