New Orleans - Incoming BP CEO Bob Dudley is set to outline his company's long-term efforts to help the Gulf of Mexico recover from the oil spill on Friday morning, and will be getting help from a Clinton administration-era emergency management official.

The oil giant said Dudley would be in Biloxi, Mississippi, to announce that former Federal Emergency Management Agency head James Lee Witt will support its recovery efforts. Local officials, especially in Louisiana, have been clamouring for more long-term commitments in the face of reports that the oil spill is dissipating, at least on the water's surface.

Retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, the government's oil-spill response chief, had what he called a frank and open discussion on Thursday with Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and coastal parish officials concerned that the Coast Guard and BP will pull back from the spill response once the oil is stopped permanently.

"One of the things we absolutely wanted to get today was their commitment that they're in it for the long term," Jindal said. "Look, all those (federal) people in the room, with no disrespect... they're going to be rotated out to different jobs. Everybody here is still going to be here dealing with this oil whether it's a year from now or years from now."

Plaquemines Parish president Billy Nungesser said it was clear the cleanup effort was being scaled back, even though oil was still showing up on the coast.

"They say they are not (pulling back) but already they have cancelled catering contracts, they've stopped production of boom at factories," he said.

"We know there's a lot of oil out there," Nungesser said. "It's going to continue to come ashore, and we're going to hold their feet to the fire to make sure they're there until all the oil is gone out of the Gulf of Mexico before we pull all of the assets out of our parish."

Allen said federal, state and local officials will come up with a plan by next week on how to clean up any oil that might continue washing up on beaches and in wetlands.

Allen has said it has become harder to find oil on the surface of the Gulf, but Nungesser said on Thursday reports that oil has been disappearing have been exaggerated.

'Oil all over'

"Yesterday there was a flight where no oil was seen. I don't know how they took that flight, but they must have bobbed and weaved around the oil because in Plaquemines Parish there is oil all over," Nungesser said.

The gusher, set off by an April 20 oil-rig explosion, spewed between 94 million gallons and 184 million gallons into the Gulf before a temporary cap stopped the flow on July 15. A permanent fix is expected to be weeks away.

Allen said that once the oil is stopped for good, the cleanup effort may start ratcheting down. The work has involved 3.35 million meters of boom, 811 oil skimmers and 40 000 people.

Little of the oil remains on the water, but that doesn't mean it has all vanished. Scientists are worried that much of it has been trapped below the surface after nearly 3 million litres of chemical dispersant were used to break up the oil 1.6km deep. They have found evidence of massive clouds of oil suspended in the water.

The Coast Guard expects oil to keep showing up on Gulf Coast beaches four to six weeks after the well is killed. Allen said there is now little chance that any of thespilled oil will reach the East Coast, and the odds will go to zero as the well is killed.

A procedure intended to ease the job of plugging the blown-out well for good could start as early as the weekend, Allen said. The so-called static kill can begin when crews finish work drilling the relief well 80km offshore that is needed for a permanent fix.

Allen said crews would drop in casing for the relief well later Thursday, and that could speed up work on the static kill, though he did not say by how much. He previously said it would begin late Sunday or early Monday.

The static kill, which involves pumping heavy mud into the busted well from the top, is on track for completion some time next week. Then comes the bottom kill, where the relief well will be used to pump in mud and cement from the bottom. That process will take days or weeks, depending on the effectiveness of the static kill.

- Sapa