[El Gato]

I have no idea if it's been photo shopped. But if that is a major inlet to a port, it's bound to be heavily dredged.

Exactly, it reminds me a bit of the entrance to Galveston Bay, through the gap between Point Bolivar and Galveston Island. That's the Houston Ship Channel, which is indeed heavily dredged, for big oil tankers. Sort of similar to Corpus Christi bay as well. Both Galveston and Corpus Christi bays are pretty shallow, but both are dredged well up into a major river. The Nueces river in Corpus and Buffalo Bayou in Houston.

[No2much3]

Galveston Bay was my first thought also but super tankers do not enter Galveston Bay. They "Lighten" 20 miles out where there is a floating fuel pipeline inlet. The supertanker (usually from Cen./Sou. America or from Africa) will pump crude into the pipeline at the same time filling smaller tankers (lightening). The turnaround for a fully laden Supertanker is about 24 hours. The supertanker will then head to the LOOP off Louisiana and pick up distilled fuels for ballast for the trip back.

This demonstrates the problem which the world has with oil. We have plenty of oil but no refineries. Europe and Africa and Sou. America buy refined products from us because they do not have the refining capacity. So why do we ship gasoline overseas? Because oil companies can get a better price for gasoline in England or Portugal then in America. Europe is helping support our lower gasoline prices because we are doing the refining.

What we need is more refineries, especially on the West coast where the demand is higher. It would also help if we taxed illegal immigrants from Mexico who send US$ back to their home country. The tax should be about 100% paid in oil, shipped to our Gulf coast facilities.

Then again, this is America where nothing will get done due to our politicians.

Sorry for the rant