(New throughout, adds partial reopening of channel)
By Liz Hampton and Erwin Seba
HOUSTON, Sept 6 (Reuters) - The Houston Ship Channelre-opened to some vessel traffic on Tuesday afternoon, the U.S.Coast Guard said, after an early morning tanker fire promptedclosure of the waterway.
The U.S. Coast Guard Houston Vessel Traffic Service said itwould commence with tow vessel transit outbound from Old Riverand San Jacinto River. That would be followed by inboundmovements, it said.
The Houston Ship Channel links the busiest U.S.petrochemical port to the Gulf of Mexico.
Four Houston-area refineries were unable to receive crudeoil from tankers on Tuesday after a portion of the channel wasshut by an early-morning fire aboard an empty tanker.
The fire began shortly after midnight CDT (0500 GMT) aboardthe 810-foot (247-meter) tanker the Aframax River and wasextinguished within a few hours. The ship was moved out of thewater way to a dock.
Only a light sheen from bunker fuel, a type of diesel, hasbeen seen in the channel, according to the Coast Guard.
The tanker caught fire near the intersection of BuffaloBayou and the San Jacinto River. The fire appeared to originatein a punctured bunker fuel tank. No injuries were reported, theCoast Guard said.
Because of the closure, Valero Energy Corp's andLyondellBasell Industries' Houston refineries,Petrobras' refinery in nearby Pasadena, Texasand Royal Dutch Shell's joint venture in Deer Park,Texas could not receive oil. The four refineries have crudeon-site in storage tanks and also have access to long-distanceand short-haul pipeline systems.
The four refineries have a combined crude oil throughput of761,505 barrels per day (bpd), equal to 4 percent of U.S.refining capacity.
The channel had been closed to vessel traffic for one mile(1.6 km) southwest from where the ship caught fire, the CoastGuard said.
It said seven ships were waiting to exit the channel andeight were waiting to enter on Tuesday afternoon.
Tankers were able to move to and from Exxon Mobil Corp's 560,500-bpd Baytown refinery, the Coast Guard said.
Tankers transiting the Houston Ship Channel supply fiverefineries in the Houston metropolitan area and three refineriesin Texas City, Texas. The eight plants have a combined crude oilthroughput of 2.1 million barrels per day equal to 11.4 percentof national refining capacity. (Reporting by Liz Hampton and Erwin Seba in Houston, ApekshaNair in Bengaluru; Editing by David Gregorio and Bill Trott)
