The Obama administration knew over a month ago that it needed help from international ships to clean up the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, but is just now close to utilizing their assistance, a top government official said Thursday.
The government realized they needed help in skimming from foreign ships once estimates of the amount of oil leaking from the Horizon Deepwater well were revised upward significantly, said National Incident Commander Thad Allen.
“Four to six weeks ago we saw the … shifting landscape from booming requirements to skimming requirements. We talked to State Department. They sent a cable out – I believe it was around the 13th of June actually – soliciting input from the countries. A lot of that has come back now. We’re in the process where we can screen it, actually do letters of acceptance. And we’re moving on that right now,” Allen said.
“We have well over 100 offers. We’re going over them right now. Roughly about 40 of those have been accepted. And we’re reviewing all those right now,” he continued.
The oil spill began on or around April 20 when the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded and sank to the ocean floor. Under the time line outlined by Allen, the government’s realization that they needed more ships to help with skimming the Gulf for oil came about a month after the crisis began, while the red tape-laden process to procure that help has taken six weeks.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs disputed reports that said the announcement Tuesday from the State Department was the first time the Obama administration has accepted help from other countries or from international ships.
“There were already 24 foreign vessels that were already operating in the gulf before the State Department announced two days ago additional international assistance. As early as May 11, boom had arrived from Mexico, Norway and Brazil,” Gibbs said.
Gibbs also said it is a “myth” that President Obama’s refusal to waive the Jones Act — which prohibits foreign ships from operating in or around U.S. ports — has harmed the cleanup effort.
Allen, who retired Wednesday from his position as a Coast Guard admiral and briefed reporters at the White House Thursday in a business suit next to Gibbs, also said that the president’s June 15 promise that 90 percent of the oil leaking out of the well would be captured “in the coming weeks and days” was still a few weeks from becoming reality.
Allen gave more details on why the ‘A-Whale’ – a retro-fitted tanker vessel that is capable of scooping up 500,000 barrels of oily water a day – has not yet been cleared for operating in the Gulf.
He said the area around the sunken Deepwater Horizon oil well is “very congested” with 20 to 30 vessels, and that the ‘A-Whale’ would only be effective in or around that area.
“That’s when it comes up as a pretty good size slick. It becomes pretty disaggregated after that. So if you have a huge tanker capable of 21 million gallon capacity chasing down half a mile slicks, that’s probably a different kind of platform you want to use for it,” Allen said.
Meanwhile, local officials along the Gulf Coast have alleged that the federal government has sent them “phantom assets” to help clean up the oil spill, overstating the number of skimming ships, boom and dispersants, according to a report released Thursday by a top Republican lawmaker.
A Jefferson Parish homeland security official, Deano Bonano, told congressional staffers that “the number of assets claimed [by the White House] does not appear to match what is actually in the field.”
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