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Firefighters battled a blaze Monday aboard a ship in the Houston Ship Channel. The fire broke out before 10 a.m. on a ship docked near American Petroleum and Federal, officials said.

Magellan Midstream Partners LP (NYSE: MMP) and TransCanada Corp. (NYSE: TRP) have entered into a joint development agreement to pursue a project to connect TransCanada's Houston tank terminal to Magellan's East Houston terminal. The project would include the construction of a 9-mile, 24-inch-diameter pipeline, in which Magellan and TransCanada would have a 50/50 ownership interest. The project would give TransCanada's Keystone and Marketlink shippers access to Magellan's Houston and Texas City, Texas, crude oil distribution system. Michael Mears, Magellan's president and CEO, commented that this connection would provide its customers with additional supply options for the Houston Gulf Coast refining...

Resolving legal issues that arise from Saturday’s fuel spill in Galveston Bay likely will require years of litigation and cost tens of millions of dollars. “You usually don’t talk about environmental cleanups in the millions of dollars range. It’s in the tens of millions of dollars range,” said Noah Hall, who focuses on environmental and water law as an associate professor at Wayne State University in Detroit. “You dump something in the water, and boy is it hard to get back.” Houston-based Kirby Corp., which owned and operated the barge that spilled 168,000 gallons of fuel after a collision Saturday,...

Exxon Mobil Corp. said Wednesday its major refinery in Baytown now can increase output of refined fuels again after closure of the Houston Ship Channel blocked waterborne oil supplies for three days. “We can confirm that we are receiving crude shipments and will be adjusting rates accordingly,” Todd Spitler, a spokesman for Exxon Mobil, said in an emailed statement. Spitler said the Irving oil and gas company does not disclose specifics about its production levels. Exxon Mobil’s refining complex in Baytown is the second-largest of its kind in the U.S. with a daily capacity of 586,000 barrels. “We expect to...

...Port authorities nationwide pay into a fund designed to cover maintenance costs. The Port of Houston pays about $100 million annually into the fund, but gets back only about $25 million — about half of the $50 million needed to maintain one of the world’s busiest channels, said Roger Guenther, the Port of Houston’s executive director. The port typically handles about 70 ships daily, plus 300 to 400 tugboats and barges. And Gulf of Mexico traffic — especially of large ships — is expected to increase with the opening next year of the Panama Canal expansion. Ports will need to...

Just before 10:00 CST on Tuesday morning, the Houston Ship Channel reopened exclusively to barge traffic after a fuel oil spill on Saturday shut down the waterway that enables tankers to supply over one-tenth of US refining capacity. Planes were to begin flying after sunrise on Tuesday across Galveston Bay to assess the location of 4,000 barrels of heavy fuel oil spilled after a Kirby Inland Marine oil barge and a cargo ship collided on Saturday afternoon, the Coast Guard said. Additionally, the Coast Guard prepared inspection and decontamination stations for vessels entering and exiting the channel once it reopens....

Kinder Morgan Energy Partners said that operations are underway at phase one of its 185-acre Battleground Oil Specialty Terminal Co. project on the Houston Ship Channel. Twenty of the 51 storage tanks built during the first phase of construction are being placed into service this month, and the remaining tanks will come online during the next six months. A two-berth ship dock and 12 barge berths are also slated to be in service this month. “We are pleased commercial operations have begun which provide the market with a unique, deepwater terminaling solution that provides high-speed loading and improved barge and...

Pipeline giant Kinder Morgan will push forward with a $54 million expansion to add to its sprawling, 57-tank storage site under construction along the Houston Ship Channel. The move will add six large tanks to the complex, boosting its capacity by 900,000 barrels. In total, with the expansion, the complex will be able to store 8 million barrels across its 63 tanks, which will handle refined products like ultra low sulfur diesel and other products. The expansion also will add access for pipelines and deep-water vessels. Kinder Morgan owns a 55 percent stake in the complex, with TransMontaigne Partners holding...

The latest, proposed route of the I-69 "NAFTA Highway" is slightly different from previous expectations, with a major segment skipping Fort Bend County. The NAFTA Highway is a proposal to link Mexico, the U.S. and Canada through a major highway starting at Laredo and Matamoros and running through Port Huron, Mich. The highway proposal also includes a separate route connecting the main corridor to the Houston Ship Channel, and that will likely run through Fort Bend County. For years, local officials have speculated the main corridor of the highway would run through Fort Bend County in place of U.S. 59....