
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, February 17, 1991                   TAG: 9102170123
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: DHAHRAN, SAUDI ARABIA                                LENGTH: Short

SAUDIS LACK MONEY TO CONTAIN OIL SPILL

The battle against a massive oil slick in the Persian Gulf has become one of the latest casualties of war, with environmental officials admitting that they are not prepared to check much of its devastating progress southward along the Saudi coastline.

Saudi Arabia, already strapped for cash because of huge outlays for the war effort, has committed only a small fraction of the estimated $1 billion needed simply for initial containment and cleanup, according to diplomatic sources in the Saudi capital.

Moreover, organizational problems within the Saudi government delayed the start of cleanup operations - preventing the removal of a substantial amount of oil from the gulf before it had washed up into environmentally sensitive fishing grounds and shore-bird breeding areas, the kingdom's own environmental experts say.

The Saudi government has delayed hiring extra oil-skimming vessels because there is no money to bring them to the gulf. Trenching operations to contain oil along the beaches have been postponed because bulldozers could not be acquired in the first critical days of the spill, the experts said.

"We've agonized every foot of this spill's movement," said David Olson, assistant to the director of Saudi Arabia's Meteorology and Environmental Protection Administration, which is overseeing the cleanup effort.

by CNB