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Dutch Assistance in the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill

Press release | 24 June 2010

The current oil spill in the Gulf is a great tragedy. Over the last 800 years the Netherlands has had its share of disasters related to water (such as floods) and has accumulated considerable experience and knowledge in dealing with those adversities.

The Dutch are ready to share that knowledge with those who need it. Such Dutch assistance consists of a wide-ranging network of research institutions, private companies and the public sector. Already Dutch companies are actively involved in helping clean up the damage from the oil spill and in protecting the fragile wetlands along the coast of Louisiana. The Dutch involvement has evolved naturally from the trustworthy relationship between the Netherlands and Louisiana which deepened in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The Dutch are increasingly becoming an active partner for Americans in water-related crises.

After the oil spill began, the Dutch (business and government), offered help consisting of state-of-the-art skimming arms, made by a Dutch company 'Koseq', with involvement of the Dutch counterpart of the Army Corps of Engineers, Rijkswaterstaat. These sweeping arms can be attached to ships and have a maximum pumping capacity of 350 m3 (metric tons per hour) to remove oil from the water. They were flown to the U.S. and all three of these sets are operating at the moment in the Gulf.

The State of Louisiana adopted and refined a plan, conceptualized by Dutch knowledge institutions and the dredging industry. This plan entails that sand berms will be built that prevent the oil from reaching the marshes, enlarging the existing islands in front of the coast with an estimated 40 to 45 miles of sand berm. This plan would actually protect the fragile environment of the marshes in a natural way. BP has agreed to pay for its implementation (up to $360 million); the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has issued a permit for the project to begin. The State of Louisiana has mandated a state contractor to implement the plan. The Dutch dredging industry is leading in the world and stands ready to partner with the Americans to execute the plan quickly. The estimate is that adding the dredging capacity of Dutch companies would increase the capacity significantly, thus shortening the time needed to implement the plan.