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Updated Sunday, June 27, 2010 0:19 am TWN, By Steve Szkotak ,AP Taiwan oil skimmer heads to GulfThe ship — the length of 3 1/2 American football fields and 10 stories high — is designed to collect up to 500,000 barrels of oily water a day through 12 vents on either side of its bow. It docked in Norfolk en route to the Gulf from Portugal, where it was retrofitted to skim the seas. The ship and its crew of 32 were to leave Virginia waters Friday evening. The owners of the “A Whale” said the ship features a new skimming approach that has never been attempted on such a large scale. They are anxious to put it to its first test in the Gulf. “We really have to start showing people what we can do,” said Bob Grantham, project coordinator for TMT Group, a Taiwan-based shipping company. The company is still negotiating with the Coast Guard to join the cleanup and does not have a contract with BP to perform cleanup work. The company also needs environmental approval and waiver of a nearly century-old law aimed at protecting U.S. shipping interests. Environmental Protection Agency approval is required because some of the seawater returned to the Gulf would have traces of oil. The Coast Guard, which has received more than 2,000 cleanup proposals, said the supertanker skimmer had survived a preliminary review and was being studied further. Capt. Ron LaBrec said that initial review involves a number of government agencies, including the EPA. One question, he said, is: “Will a large vessel like this be able to operate this in this kind of area?” If the ship passes the additional review, its owners could then negotiate terms with BP. He could not provide an estimated timetable for the review would be completed. The company said it also needs a waiver of the 1920 Jones Act, which limits the activities of foreign-flagged ships in coastal U.S. waters. The A Whale is Liberian-flagged vessel. Grantham said TMT was hopeful it could secure the necessary approvals during the ship's three-day passage to the Gulf. The converted oil tanker has the capacity of holding 2 million barrels, but would limit its holding tanks to 1 million barrels for environmental reasons. Oil skimmed up by the tanker would be separated from seawater, then transferred to another vessel. Its owners claim the ship could gulp oily water at a daily rate that nearly matches the skimming total to date in the Gulf. Nobu Su, CEO and founder of TMT group, compared the massive ship to a whale scooping up small fish. He said cappuccino-colored oily water would be processed through several tanks to extract oil the color of espresso. He said the ship was engineered to skim oil shortly after its construction in South Korea this year after he recognized the “catastrophic” oil spill would require extraordinary measures. “I believe this spill is unprecedented and you need an unprecedented solution,” said T.K. Ong, senior vice president for TMT. The effort received the endorsement of at least one Louisiana resident. Edward Overton, a professor emeritus from Louisiana State University, was among the visitors at the port where the A Whale was berthed. He called the current cleanup inadequate. “We need this ship,” he told TMT executives. “That oil is already contaminating our shoreline.” Subscribe to The China Post and save 25%. Click here Comments June 28, 2010 quelenglish@ BP and the fishermen need all the help they could get June 28, 2010 ironjustice@ ANYONE who wishes to help should be welcome. As to paying them to cleanup one might wonder how much this oil they gather would be worth. Seems to me this sucker should pay for itself in a day or two .. ? I'm no math whiz though. June 29, 2010 mkpatter@ will BO allow it??? June 30, 2010 robert.smith1@ Screw the Jones Act! Get that ship to the Gulf!! July 1, 2010 goarmy.llewellyn@ If I were the skipper of that ship I would pull a Sheriff Billy McGee -- you know, the guy whose town the federal government had sent a truck full of bottled water to, but then they kept it locked up at Camp Shelby, up the road, for reasons nobody could figure out. I mean, people were dying from dehydration and heat stroke. He took two of his deputies and he went and got the water.I hope the skipper of the "A Whale" has a similar set of balls. The time for screwing around and playing by the rules is way over. July 1, 2010 gyoung9@ Why is this ship not already deployed in the gulf !!!! Shame on us what has our American government come to. This is a spit in our eye!!!Are we that dumb? July 1, 2010 Dixiebell12@ I live on the Gulf Coast, we're desperate, we need all the help we can get. Bp would be idiots to turn them away. July 1, 2010 rlinza@ Oh no! It will put some trace amount of oily water back in the Ocean. That would be an environmental disaster.The EPA needs to get over themselves. July 2, 2010 roger@ Typical. A good idea comes along and bureaucratic BS will try to hold it up. Does anybody really believe Washington is trying to help the clean up?Forget the rhetoric, LET’S GET GOING. July 2, 2010 smith.johnson748@ The 1920 Jones act will be used to stop the tanker from entering Gulf and helping to cleanup the oil spill.Our bureaucracy will stop it. SHAME! July 2, 2010 sergeimingaliev@ The Jones Act is yet another one of the many aging and irrelevant legislations, including the right to bear arms, of the modern, technologically advanced United State of America. July 3, 2010 Gsrogers1@ The Jones act does not apply according to an article in the Friday Seattle Times. July 5, 2010 gerrymannn@ The administration is dragging their feet on any "reasonable relief actions" to protect the UNIONS who have these politicians by the BALLS !!!,,Bring in outsiders and you loose our "financial & political support"....In the meantime myself and many others are being bypassed for cleanup work in the area....We'll be on welfare in short order!! SICKENING !!!!!!!!! July 6, 2010 bsauseda@ perhaps we're waiting for blackwater to come to the rescue. July 15, 2010 amERICan@ robert.smith1@ wrote: the Jones Act actually only deals with the trading of goods in American harbors. It has nothing to do with this oil spill.Screw the Jones Act! Get that ship to the Gulf!! |
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BP and USCG will eventually use tankers to collect the oil that has been released into the Gulf of Mexico as a result of the Deepwater Horizon blowout of April 20, 2010. Unfortunately, this decision will be made after the devastation of many coastal communities.
Since May 17, 2010, Renergie, Inc. has submitted unsolicited proposals for the purpose of using three Panamax class crude tankers for the collection and onboard separation of the BP oil spill to every federal agency, state agency, state elected official and federal elected official with even a remote interest in the BP oil spill. These tankers are capable of collecting and separating both surface oil and the underwater plumes of oil.
The USCG response to Renergie's proposal stated, “Unfortunately, the Coast Guard does not currently have a mission and is not hiring contractors. However, if BP requests names, I will recommend and forward your company.”
The blowout of April 20, 2010 aboard the Deepwater Horizon was clearly preventable. The fact that the BP oil spill has been allowed to reach coastal areas is inexcusable.