Portion of Mississippi River closed due barge leak: USCG

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Fuel leaking from a disabled barge closed a small portion of the Mississippi River in New Orleans, the U.S. Coast Guard said on Wednesday.

The river was closed between Mile 93 and Mile 95, near Algiers Point, after a barge disabled in a collision last week shifted and began spilling fuel oil again, a Coast Guard spokeswoman said.

"The barge shifted," the spokeswoman said. "We closed down a small portion of the river as a precautionary measure."

The leak was a setback after flows along vital shipping route began to return to normal as cleanup of the worst spill in nearly a decade progressed.

Last week the Coast Guard closed the river to vessel traffic between Mile 98 at New Orleans and Mile Zero at the Gulf of Mexico after a vessel collision spilled nearly 420,000 gallons (1,590,000 liters) of fuel oil in the river.

The river remains officially closed, but progress in the cleanup had allowed a gradual increase in traffic on this key shipping route for grain, coal and fuel exports from the U.S. heartland and crude oil imports from overseas.

(Reporting by Chris Baltimore; Editing by David Gregorio)