Iran offers to help with U.S. oil spill

TEHRAN, May 4 (UPI) -- Iranian officials offered their oil workers to help prevent an ecological disaster from an oil spill off the southern coast of the United States.

The Deepwater Horizon rig caught fire and sank last month about 50 miles off the coast of Louisiana. Though weather patterns are keeping most of the slick offshore, crude oil is spilling into the Gulf of Mexico at a rate of about 5,000 barrels per day.

Heidar Bahmani, the managing director of the National Iranian Drill Co., said his company was ready to help contain the spill, Iran's state-funded broadcaster Press TV reports

"Our oil industry experts in the field of drilling can contain the rig leakage in the Gulf of Mexico and prevent an ecological disaster in that part of the world," he said.

The managing director added the NIDC was ready to overlook the U.S. push for new sanctions at the U.N. Security Council as there is an urgent need for action in the southern coastal regions.

Environmental activists said the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico could rival the environmental damage from the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster this week.

BP, the operator of Deepwater Horizon, said a containment canopy could be in position at the site of the Deepwater Horizon "in a little more than a week."