The U.S. Coast Guard has removed the sunken drydock that has been blocking the Lake Charles, Louisiana, ship channel to large crude oil tankers, a spokesman said. "All sections of the sunken drydock have been removed from the Calcasieu River," the spokesman said. "The Army Corps of Engineers is conducting surveys to determine the need for additional dredging to return the channel to its project depth," he added.
Until complete restoration of the channel, the Lake Charles pilots will be evaluating the navigable channel to determine beam and draft restrictions for safe passage, it added.
The sunken dry dock had since mid-June stopped crude tankers getting to Conoco Inc.'s 243,000 bpd Lake Charles plant and Venezuelan-owned Citgo Corp.'s 310,000 bpd plant.