ABU DHABI // Six weeks after the UAE offered US$1 million (Dh3.6m) worth of equipment to the US to help to clean up the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the country's crisis management team is still waiting for a response. It is not the only one. Of the 28 countries and international organisations that have offered expertise, equipment or general assistance, most of the offers remain "under consideration", according to a chart posted on the US State Department's website last week.
"We're still on standby and our people are ready and waiting," said Atheyd al Masaadi, the co-ordinator of the crisis management team overseen by the Supreme Petroleum Council and the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc). "There's been no update from BP." The UAE has offered four skimmers - recovery units that suck up oil - 2,000m of onshore boom and 400m of offshore boom, as well as two helicopter spray pots to disperse chemicals.
Along with the equipment, a team of 30 people who have performed successful clean-up operations in Lebanon and Egypt are waiting to be deployed. The team's on-site expertise would be particularly useful, said Dr Hemanta Sarma, the chairman of the petroleum engineering programme at the Petroleum Institute. "BP has less manpower, not more, they crucially need manpower," he said. "People who go from [the UAE] with a background in offshore activities will need little training; those from land oil fields being assigned to the Gulf would first need to be trained.
"For our expertise here, it's just a different setting, but same skills." Like most other international offers, the UAE's assistance was contingent on reimbursement. Processing international offers of assistance has been painfully slow; the US accepted equipment from Mexico, Norway and the Netherlands in May as well as a containment boom from Canada early this month, but few other offers have been accepted.
"They are aware of our offer, and we were asking last week, but still there is no response," said Mr al Masaadi. According to Andrew Gars, a spokesman for BP, the company has been overwhelmed with offers of assistance and it is not always able to respond in a timely fashion. "It's huge and when you have the focus on what you're doing on the ground other ideas coming in can sometimes get slowed," he said. @Email:mdetrie@thenational.ae
The Greater New Orleans foundation has established the Gulf Oil Spill Fund to help provide support and services to fishermen and their families whose livelihoods are most affected by the spill. The fund will make emergency grants to non-governmental organisations helping with the spill, as well as address long-term effects of the disaster. To donate go to www.gnof.org.