US Coast Guard (USCG) investigators say the two ships collided on the Houston Ship Canal in the Upper Galveston Bay on 9 March at 12.30pm.

The supramax bulker Conti Peridot (built 2011) was inbound and the 45,000-dwt tanker Carla Maersk (built 1999) outbound. Both ships had taken a pilot onboard.

The Carla Maersk was carrying 216,000 barrels of methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE).