New rules for American ships come amid worst barge spills since 2008

[HOUSTON] Tighter regulation of US ships carrying record exports of diesel and gasoline is coming amid the worst year for oil spills from barges since 2008.

US Coast Guard rules to be issued within the next 90 days would require commercial vessels nationwide to be equipped with Automatic Identification System (AIS) technology, which uses transponders and electronic chart displays to alert pilots to neighbouring ships, according to trade group American Waterways Operators (AWO), an Arlington, Virginia-based trade group for the US tugboat, towboat and barge industry. A pending inspection regulation would bring ships more in line with trains and trucks that carry similar cargo. Growing volumes of shale oil that's made the United States the world's biggest energy producer moves through inland waterways on ships almost twice as long and that carry 10 times the load of vessels plying the same routes in the 1960s.

Export traffic on the Houston Ship Channel in 2013 rose 8.8 per cent to a record 109.2 million tonnes. Towing vessels or barges were involved in 1,852 accidents and other mishaps nationwide last year, up 4 per cent compared with 2012.