Fog slowed ship traffic at the key oil port of Houston Friday, but pilots were moving inbound vessels and expecting the weather to improve by mid-afternoon, the U.S. Coast Guard said.
As of midday, 20 ships were delayed inbound and 22 were waiting to depart, a Coast Guard spokesman said. Tankers carrying oil and petroleum products account for much of the traffic at Houston.
The fog was expected to ease with the passage of a cold front by the middle of the afternoon, the Coast Guard said.
It was the second consecutive day of fog slowing vessel traffic in the Houston area. Fog halted traffic for four hours early Thursday and then again late Thursday into Friday.
Pilots stopped boarding vessels inbound and outbound about 8:30 p.m. local (0230 GMT) Thursday due to low visibility, but resumed limited traffic at 7:45 a.m. Friday for inbound vessels only, the Coast Guard said.
Galveston pilots, who serve destinations on the lower end of the Houston Ship Channel including Texas City, were not boarding any vessels, but the queue was short, with one waiting to come in and one waiting to go out, the Coast Guard said.
Fog is common along the Texas coast during winter, complicating the steering of ships and barges up and down the Houston Ship Channel to serve one of the world's major concentration of refineries.
Houston's port facilities lie inland, across Galveston Bay from the Gulf of Mexico and pilots must navigate the 53-mile-long channel to reach destinations along its length.