Saudi Orders for Oil-Cleanup Gear Bog Down : Persian Gulf: Equipment vendors express some frustration while waiting for contracts to clean up a massive oil spill unleashed by Iraq.

Pollution-control vendors are wondering when they will see a second round of contracts from Saudi Arabian officials who are charged with corralling the massive oil spill that threatens desalination plants and marine life in the Persian Gulf.

Discovery of the giant slick unleashed by Iraq during hostilities prompted an initial flurry of orders for oil-containment booms, absorbent materials and oil skimmers from vendors in the United States, Europe and Japan. But orders have slowed dramatically in recent weeks, according to vendors attending the weeklong International Oil Spill Conference here.

U.S. and foreign governments, along with private companies, are using fax machines and telexes to flood the Saudi Arabian Meteorological and Environmental Protection Administration with cleanup proposals. But Saudi officials have been slow to respond.

“My personal opinion is that the bureaucracy is alive and well in Saudi Arabia,” said Richard Roark, a spokesman for Emtech Environmental, a company based in Ft. Worth. “Basically, nothing has been done yet.”

Some industry observers predict that orders will soon materialize--because hostilities are over and because the Saudis have directed Aramco, the country’s giant oil company, to play a major role in the cleanup. Others worry that war-weary Saudi Arabia will not have enough money to complete the costly job.

David Usher, president of the Spill Control Assn. of America, a Detroit-based trade group, is relatively upbeat. U.S. and European vendors “should see some business, and not only for oil recovery,” he said. “You’re also going to see contracts for hazardous materials (treatment) as they clean up the materials left behind by the war.”

Usher spent the past month in Saudi Arabia as the on-site coordinator for the International Maritime Organization, a London-based group that is sifting through 550 cleanup proposals from companies and foreign governments. The Saudis are figuring out which equipment they have and which additional equipment is needed to clean up the spill, Usher said.

Vendors at the San Diego trade show applauded Saudi Arabia’s decision to designate Aramco and Aramco Services Co., a Houston-based subsidiary, as lead players in the cleanup.

Aramco is “well-suited” to dealing with the massive amounts of workers and equipment needed to deal with the spill, said Ian MacBeth, a spokesman for Vikoma International Ltd., an English company that has shipped oil-containment booms and one oil skimmer to the Gulf.

Other vendors suggested that Aramco’s financial stability will ease fears that companies will not be paid for equipment and services that are shipped to the Gulf.

In interviews Wednesday, though, vendors expressed frustration at their inability to get answers from Saudi Arabia.

“We made proposals to Saudi Arabia five weeks ago,” said Michel Magnan, commercial director of the Oil Spill Control Assn. of France. But responses from Saudi officials have been slow. “We are now on the dock waiting to go,” Magnan said.

“We have some good things in the fire, but who knows what will happen,” added R. Kent Geis, a spokesman for American Marine Inc., a company based in Cocoa, Fla., that manufactures booms. “No one (in Saudi Arabia) seems to want to make any commitment.”

Jan Allers, managing director of AllMaritim, a consortium that markets oil-spill containment equipment for several Norwegian manufacturers, said Saudi Arabia’s slow response was “understandable” during wartime.

“But now we’re in a situation where I guess they should get the action going,” Allers said.

THE GULF SLICK First spill: 1.5 million-2 million barrels Second spill: 10,000-20,000 barrels SIZE: Now that the Gulf hostilities have ended, the U.S. Coast Guard has released new survey results that estimate the slick to contain 1.5 million to 2 million barrels of oil--63 million to 84 million gallons. That is down significantly from initial estimates of 300 million to 450 million gallons, but still an overwhelming catastrophe.

SECOND SLICK: Coast Guard observers are monitoring a second, smaller slick in the middle of the Gulf that contains 10,000 to 20,000 barrels of oil. It may be part of the original spill. Various facilities from Kuwait city south to Khafji were suspected of still leaking oil.

RIBBONS: An aerial survey taken during the weekend found that the spill had torn itself into ribbon-like strings that are collecting in a coastal pocket between the northern border town of Khafji and the south port area of Jubayl, site of the desalination plant where Saudi Arabia gets most of its water.