Weekly News Summary For July 7 - July 13, 2008:
(Editor’s note: Tom Gladders, former president of Gladders Towing Company and past chairman of The American Waterways Operators, has followed the industry for many years. His five–part series on the impact of high–cost marine diesel fuel on the industry will continue over the next several issues.)
My, oh my!!! Diesel fuel at $4.50, corn over $7 and soybeans in the middle teens. Who whudda thought it would come to this? With marine diesel fuel prices approaching $5 per gallon and rising with no end in sight, vessel operators, shippers, midstream fuelers and others are in uncharted waters. One could say there is disbelief at the current price of fuel. For older industry hands, they recall when a gallon of fuel was a mere 12 cents.
How did this come to be? There are many causes, and all have serious and long–range implications for the barge and towing industry and the industries that depend upon it. The fuel cost for a large lower Mississippi River towboat navigating upstream is approaching $50,000 a day.
Effects are being felt by farmers, manufacturers, chemical companies, coal companies, all forms of transportation, consumers and others not just in the United States but abroad. Although barge transportation is the most fuel–efficient form of transportation of all modes other than pipelines, the high cost of diesel fuel is a major challenge for management.
We’ll explore the causes and impact on the barge and towing industry and others and examine implications for the future in a series of reports. Our first article examines diesel fuel, its refining and pricing.
Diesel fuel is one of several petroleum products derived from crude oil. It is a “middle distillate,” heavier than products such as gasoline and kerosene and lighter than products such as residual fuel. Modern refineries can vary to some degree the percentage of diesel fuel and other products obtained from each barrel of crude oil, and historically have determined that percentage based upon market and seasonal conditions as well as the type of crude oil being processed. Typically, diesel constitutes about 8 gallons of throughput compared to about 20 gallons for gasoline according to the federal Energy Information Agency (EIA)….
Some Mississippi River locks remained closed longer than originally predicted, as four more inches of rain were dumped on the Upper Mississippi drainage basin over the last weekend in June.
Locks 12 opened on June 15; Locks 13 and 14 opened on June 18; Lock 15 opened on June 20; Lock 16 opened on June 26; and Locks 17 and 18 opened on June 27.
Water levels at St. Louis crested at 38.5 feet downtown on Monday, June 30—eight feet above flood stage, according to the National Weather Service. They were expected to begin falling on Tuesday.
The river has crested at Winfield, Clarksville, Grafton, and Hamburg. Highway 100, the Great River Road, remained flooded and off limits to motorists….
With massive flooding on the Upper Mississippi River grabbing headlines, there is a continued interest in seating an independent commission to investigate the cause of levee failure and flooding in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina two years ago.
Failure of the levees on August 29, 2005, in metro New Orleans rests squarely on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and ultimately on Congress, says Levees.Org, a non-profit group pushing for an independent 8/29 Commission, similar to the 9/11 Commission that investigated the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon in 2001.
“The failure of the levees was the worst engineering disaster in the world since Chernobyl,” Levees.Org quoted Dr. Ray Sneed, Geotechnical Engineering, at the University of California at Berkeley, on its Web site www.levees.org.
More than 20,000 people have signed the organization’s petition “demanding better levees for America,” with the site mentioning support from Louisiana’s Sens. Mary Landrieu and David Vitter, Gov. Bobby Jindal and Rep. Charlie Melancon (D–La.) and Zach Wamp (R–Tenn.) ….
Vessel congestion at the mouth of the Mississippi River has prompted a subcommittee of the Lower Mississippi River Waterway Safety Advisory Committee (LMRWSAC) to distribute safety pamphlets to mariners. The advisory committee is working with Coast Guard Sector New Orleans and Station Venice on the project.
Called “Safety at the Mouth, ” the program stresses communicating vessel maneuvering intentions, particularly focusing below Venice, La., about Mile 12 Above Head of Passes (AHP). The subcommittee is headed by Capt. Michael Miller, vice president of the Associated (Bar) Pilots.
Hundreds of informational packets and laminated flyers have been distributed, urging waterway users to maintain radio watch on VHF Channel 67 while operating in the river. Once offshore, mariners should monitor VHF Channels 13 and 16….
To meet the surging demand for towboats and barges, another new shipyard has opened, this one at Bayou la Batre, Ala. Named D.E.S. Boat Works, it is operated by Daryl Steiner, who is the nephew of longtime boat builder Russell Steiner, and was formerly general manager of nearby Raymond & Associates. The new facility is located in the service yard of Steiner Shipyard, which is owned by Russell Steiner.
The first boat constructed there is due to be completed in August. It is a 70– by 30–foot, 2,000 hp. towboat for Eckstein Marine Service, Harahan, La. Designed by Bill Preston of Marine Design, it will be named mv. Emmanuel.
D.E.S. Boat Works has two other boats on the books, both 85– by 32–foot vessels for Golding Barge Line that are scheduled to be completed in April and September of 2009….
The Waterways Journal encourages letters to the editor.
Have something on your mind?
Send letters to: jshoulberg@waterwaysjournal.net.
(Please indicate whether or not your letter is intended for publication.)
