Britain Sends Gear to Fight Gulf Oil Spill
Britain sent 70 tons of equipment to the Persian Gulf today to help clean up a massive oil spill that Prime Minister John Major condemned as “environmental vandalism” by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
Oil booms and skimmers were provided to protect water desalination and power plants from the 35-mile-long slick of black goo that is moving south along the Saudi Arabian coast.
“It is very clear that Saddam Hussein is to blame for the oil spill that the prime minister has described as an act of environmental vandalism on a massive scale,” a spokesman for Major said. “The British government is now helping with the international effort which is being mounted to tackle this disaster.”
The focus of the effort is to try to protect desalination, power stations and other sensitive areas along the Persian Gulf coast from the estimated 5 million to 10 million barrels of crude.
About 70 tons of equipment was flown to Dhahran aboard flights chartered by the British government at the request of the Saudi government, 10 Downing Street said.
The gear was deployed from the Oil Spill Service Center in Southampton, the world’s largest and most technically advanced facility of its type. It has a stockpile of booms, skimmers, vacuum pumps and chemical dispersants.
The center, which was set up in 1980 by 13 principal oil companies, assisted with the Exxon Valdez oil spill in the Gulf of Alaska in 1989.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
