EIA's SuperTanker - GOM Oil Spill
 

A couple of years ago I saw a promotional video of EIA's SuperTanker.
I remember one of it's uses was to disperse chemicals on offshore oil spill. For you in the know; how come we haven't seen it in the Gulf Of Mexico yet?

They took the plane to New Orleans a week ago however there is not enough of the chemical used on oil spills so they sit and wait.

dispersant isn't an issue in the US....
 

....there's loads of it readily available. The issue is whether the oil is amenable to dispersal. Once it has "weathered" (i.e. the volatiles have evaporated and it turns that horrible brick red color, or into tar balls, forget it. Dispersant won't touch it, and it is cripplingly expensive to apply from an ADDS (Airborne Dispersant Delivery System) pack.

Additionally, much of the oil is trapped in the subsurface current.. the dispersant is a surface technique..

Pinkman

Having spent several years of my youth doing that sort of work

Second what pinkman said.... though I did do some trials using correxit 9500 on weathered oil in the mid 1990s which seemed to go quite well but then that was surface laid oil with about 4 days weathering... this stuff (deep subsurface injection, arriving at the surface emulsified)is a different ball game (no pun intended)