B.C. premier offers oil spill help

B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell said Saturday the province can offer up to 45 Environment Ministry workers to help with the cleanup of the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

"We want to lend a helping hand to our neighbours as they deal with this environmental emergency," Campbell said in a release. "Our province has experts who are ready, willing and able to respond to tough situations like this."

Campbell said the Environment Ministry could send up to 15 emergency response officers, as well as 30 workers who specialize in managing incidents like spills.

The premier didn't say whether the help offer has been accepted, or when provincial staff might be deployed to the disaster zone.

The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded April 20 about 80 kilometres off the Louisiana coast, killing 11 of 126 workers aboard. It sank into the Gulf of Mexico two days later, rupturing a wellhead 1,500 metres below the water's surface.

About six million litres of crude have leaked into the sea since then, and the massive ensuing oil slick struck the Gulf Coast shore this weekend, posing a menace to tens of thousands of birds and marine animals.

If the leak isn't contained, it will overtake the Exxon Valdez catastrophe as the worst U.S. oil spill in history.