Oil clean-up efforts are boosted by 'A Whale'

GULF of Mexico clean-up crews working to block millions of gallons of oil from reaching land may soon have a giant on their side.

A Taiwanese vessel dubbed "A Whale", which its owners describe as the largest oil skimmer in the world, cruised a 25-sqm test site yesterday just north of the Deepwater Horizon well site.

A 20 April explosion on the rig there killed 11 workers and began what is now the largest oil spill in Gulf history.

TMT Shipping created A Whale by retrofitting an oil tanker after the explosion sent millions of gallons of crude spilling into the Gulf.

The US Coast Guard, along with BP, are waiting to see if the vessel, which is ten stories high and as long as 3 football fields, can live up to its makers' promise of being able to process up to 21 million gallons of contaminated water a day.

The ship works by taking in water through 12 vents, separating the oil and pumping the cleaned sea water back into the Gulf.

"In many ways, the ship collects water like an actual whale and pumps internally like a human heart," TMT spokesman Bob Grantham said.

A Whale is being tested close to the well-head because officials believe it will be most effective where the oil is thickest rather than closer to shore.

The ship arrived in the Gulf on Wednesday, but officials have wanted to test its capability as well as have the US Environmental Protection Agency approve the quality of the water it will pump back into the gulf, which will still contain traces of crude oil.

The wait has frustrated some - such as Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal - who say the mammoth skimmer would be a game-changer in keeping oil from reaching vulnerable coastlines.

"They've used the war rhetoric," Jindal said aboard a Louisiana state wildlife boat floating in oil-slicked waters near Grand Isle. "If this is really a war, they need to be using every resource that makes sense to fight this oil before it comes to our coast."

The governor, who has been outspoken in his criticism of the relief effort, also criticised a decision by the US Army Corps of Engineers to reject a proposal by officials from Jefferson Parish to build a series of rock dykes to protect the ecologically important Barataria Bay.

"The Corps took weeks to review the plan only to reject it - and this denial is another unfortunate example of the federal government's lack of urgency in this war to protect our coast," said Kyle Plotkin, Jindal's press secretary.

Parish officials were using a fleet of barges - dubbed the "Cajun Navy" - as temporary barriers to block the oil, but some was still seeping in.

A smaller flotilla of oil skimmers was back at work along the Gulf coast his weekend, after being forced to stand down for several days because of nasty weather whipped up by distant Hurricane Alex.

Back at the well site, work continued through the weekend to prepare another vessel, the Helix Producer, to hook up to the containment cap at the sea floor and start collecting up to 25,000 barrels a day.

If workers are able to hook up the Helix Producer this week, it could double the amount of oil being collected at the well head and then burned or transferred to other tankers. The storm that stranded oil skimmers and mangled containment boom didn't stop drilling work on two relief wells that BP says are the best chance at stopping the leak - in fact, drilling is a few days ahead of schedule, BP America spokesman Daren Beaudo said.

But the company is sticking with its early-to-mid-August time frame for completing the wells because of the uncertainties of hurricane season and the precision needed as the drills get deeper into the ocean floor.