Excerpted from “
US Searches for Oil Cleanup Aid Abroad, Two Notices Sent Worldwide Since Spill Began” By Kirit Radia, “Political Punch,” ABC News, June 15, 2010 5:28 PM
[SIZE="+2"]W[/SIZE]ithin days of the spill, unsolicited a dozen countries and international organizations offered assistance to the US. That later expanded to 17 countries, and today the State Department announced that an 18th country, Qatar, has offered containment boom.
Of those countries, the US has accepted aid so far from four nations: Mexico, Canada, Norway, and the Netherlands.
The Mexican offer of two skimmers and 13,780 feet of boom and Norway’s offer of eight skimming systems were accepted in early May, according to the State Department. The Dutch offer of three sets of Koseq Rigid Sweeping Arms was accepted on May 23 and Canada’s offer of 9,843 feet of containment boom was accepted on June 4, the department said in a statement yesterday.
Asked why the US has not accepted more international offers of assistance, the State Department has said that the size and distance of those items plays a role, but also whether any cost is associated.
“For the most part, they are offers to sell supplies. And in determining whether to accept these offers, we look at the availability of domestic sources and also, you know, compare pricing on the open market,” State Department spokesman PJ Crowley told reporters.
“So that's maybe one of the reasons why in some cases, we've been able to accept these offers and pursued them,” he added. “We continue to identify, you know, sources of important equipment that will be needed for this -- to handle this over the long term.”