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United States News Title: Despite oil spill, foreign-registered boats have tough time contributing Despite oil spill, foreign-registered boats have tough time contributing Published: Friday, July 02, 2010, 5:00 AM Casandra Andrews, Press-Register Follow Share this story Story tools View full size(AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)An oil skimmer collects oil in Gulf on April 27, 2010. Foreign-flagged vessels have had a difficult time getting into the fight against the Gulf oil spill. 1 1 9 Share MOBILE, Ala. -- In early May, about two weeks after the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded in the Gulf, barge owner Marlin Immel received a call from the U.S. Coast Guard station in Mobile, he said. An officer asked whether Immel's boat, "Duchess of Topsail," was busy. The 255-foot freight carrier can skim oil in substantial quantities, according to Immel. "They could really use it," Immel recalled the officer telling him. But today, after dozens of calls and e-mails to representatives of BP PLC and its contractors, Immel said that his Honduran-registered boat is no closer to battling the oil spill than when he started the process May 5. "I think it has been handled terribly," said Immel, owner of Boca Raton, Fla.-based Topsail Shipping LLC. Local and state leaders have also questioned why BP -- the owner of the ruptured well spewing millions of gallons of oil -- hasn't enlisted foreign-registered boats and skimmers to remove more oil from the Gulf. The Jones Act, a 1920 law that keeps foreign flagged boats out of U.S. waters, has been blamed by some for blocking such assistance. But retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen -- the national incident commander -- said this week that no Jones Act waivers are needed for boats working more than three miles from shore. "At no time have we been inhibited by the Jones Act or Jones Act waivers," he said. On Thursday, Mike Lewis, a spokesman for U.S. Rep. Jo Bonner, said that the Republican congressman from Mobile had been made aware of the availability of the Immel's skimmer boat. Bonner, he said, "continues to urge senior administration officials in the strongest terms to provide the waivers and remove the red tape necessary to get every available skimmer, from the U.S. or overseas, into the fight in the Gulf." BP spokesman Ray Melick said Thursday that the Obama administration has issued at least two waivers allowing in skimmers and other equipment from four countries. Melick said that "28 countries have offered aid and we have accepted offers already from Mexico, Norway, the Netherlands and Canada." So far, 28.2 million gallons of oil-and-water mix has been recovered from the Gulf of Mexico, he said. Immel said the Duchess has been used twice for oil-skimming cleanup, in Trinidad and in Venezuela. In ideal conditions, he said, Duchess can skim up to 6 million gallons of oil-and-water mix a day. In mid-May, Immel said he enrolled in BP's Vessels of Opportunity program so that Duchess could become involved in the spill cleanup. When BP didn't activate his boat, he said, he contacted a BP private contractor who was hiring cleanup boats. He was directed to fill out an eight-page form, he said. Again, he said, he heard nothing. Immel said he contacted another BP contractor who asked for the same information he had given twice already. Immel then called BP's corporate offices and began a three-week correspondence with a representative who eventually told him that his boat wasn't serviceable for shallow water. After that, he said, the representative stopped returning his calls and responding to his e-mails. Not once in all of those conversations, Immel said, did anyone ask how much he charged. To him, that indicated that BP and its contractors had no genuine interest. "It's evident my ship is not going to be hired," Immel said. "It's just a shame that somebody doesn't know what has gone on with this." Mike Dow, Mobile's former mayor, heard about Immel's situation a few days ago and has tried to help with calls to his political contacts. "It seems that the issue was simply that it was a foreign flag ship," Dow said. "From my personal standpoint, I don't care where the ship comes from." Said Immel, "If they would hire the ship, within 20 days I would be out there skimming oil. I even made arrangements and found a tug and barge, and hired them if I got the job."
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