Oil Spill in the Mississippi River

HOUSTON (Reuters) - A chemical tanker split a fuel barge in half on the Mississippi River on Wednesday, spilling thousands of gallons of fuel oil and forcing the closure of a 58-mile (93-km) stretch from New Orleans southward that could last for days, a U.S. Coast Guard spokesman said.

Vessel traffic was halted after the 1:30 a.m. CDT (2:30 a.m. EDT) collision in which the MV Tintomara struck an American Commercial Lines barge, which spilled more than 400,000 gallons (1,560,000 liters) of No. 6 fuel oil into the river...