(Refiles to fix Reuters Instrument Code for Carnival Corp)
* Coast Guard says no timeline for reopening Houston Channel
* Exxon: Channel closure has not affected Baytown refinery
* Second barge collision on Houston Channel this month
By Terry Wade
TEXAS CITY, Texas, March 23 (Reuters) - The closure of majorTexas shipping channels that deliver crude to more than a tenthof the nation's refining capacity looked set to run to a thirdday as crews were still working on Sunday evening to clean upafter an oil spill.
The Houston Ship Channel, which allows oil barges and cargoships to sail from the Gulf Coast to refiners and terminalsfurther inland, was shut on Saturday following a collisionbetween a Kirby Inland Marine oil barge and a cargoship, spilling some 4,000 barrels or 168,000 gallons (636,000liters) of residual fuel oil.
In a sign of progress on Sunday, Coast Guard Capt. BrianPenoyer said cleanup crews have pumped all remaining fuel oilfrom the barge, which is partially sunken near the entrance tothe channel. It has also forced the closure of the IntracoastalWaterway, which intersects a branch of the channel nearby.
The Channel will remain shut "until clean water is assured,"Penoyer told reporters at a news conference in Texas City.
A local official said the channel was expected to be shutwell into Monday. The official asked not to be identified as theinformation had not yet been made public.
The outage has yet to impact operations at Exxon MobilCorp.'s 560,500 barrel-per-day (bpd) refinery inBaytown, Texas, the nation's second-largest, company spokesmanNicolas Scinta said.
Representatives for seven other refineries in Houston andTexas City, Texas, did not reply to requests for informationabout possible reductions in production.
As of Sunday evening, 40 ships were waiting to depart theport of Houston and 35 were waiting to enter. Another sevenships were waiting to leave Texas City; five were waiting tosail to that refining hub.
In addition to finishing the cleanup of the heavy fuel oil,some of which had begun washing ashore Sunday along GalvestonBay, the Coast Guard will have to move the barge out of theChannel.
CRUISING TO PORT
Late on Sunday, Carnival Corp. said the Coast Guardhad given permission for Carnival Magic to sail up the lowerpart of the Houston Channel to the port of Galveston to dock onSunday night. The cruise ship had been scheduled to dock onSunday morning.
A Kirby-operated barge carrying fuel oil collided with aship carrying rice at nearly the same location on March 14. Inthat accident, the cargo ship was damaged, but no fuel oil wasspilled.
The Ship Channel is a 55-foot (17-meter) deep pathway forbarges and deep-draft ships cut into the floor of Galveston Bay,which averages 20 feet (6 meters) in depth.
The spill is far smaller than that by the Exxon Valdeztanker, which struck a reef in Prince William Sound, Alaska, in1989. A total of 11 million gallons of heavy black crude oilwere estimated to have been released by the Exxon Valdez.
In contrast, only one tank on the barge was ripped open bythe collision with the cargo ship in the Houston Channel onSaturday, releasing an estimated 168,000 gallons.
Wildlife Response Services, a Texas-based wildliferehabilitation service, is helping affected birds and marinelife. The service has not said how many animals have beenreceived for cleaning.
In addition to four skimming vessels working on the spill,another 20 response vessels were standing by to help with thecleanup on Sunday, the Coast Guard said. About 90,000 feet ofboom were staged along the Texas City dike for containmentdeployment.
Emergency response crews have also laid down floatingbarriers in hopes of containing the spill. (Reporting by Terry Wade in Texas City, Erwin Seba in Houston,Kevin Murphy in Kansas City, Missouri, Alex Dobuzinskis in LosAngeles and Chris Michaud in New York; Editing by Edith Honan,Cynthia Osterman, Bernard Orr and Jan Paschal)