assurance that there would be proper consideration and approval for certain emergencies. That exists now, and so MSRC's focus is on looking at the logistics of how you bring all of these dispersants to where you need them. But as far as stockpiles, my company has available worldwide over 12,000 drums. We've done an inventory, we know where they're stored, we know exactly how we're going to bring them from Texas to where they're needed, not just in the U.S. but worldwide. We have a strategic plan in place, and we know that the local stockpiles are going to be fine for the first few days and after that you need some more advanced dispersants, because as the oil weathers and gets more viscous, you have to go to a different product. That's the product we would be shipping for availability on day three, four or five. But there's a lot of that planning that has to go on.
Nerland: For how long can you keep those 1,200 drums in stock? Doesn't it have an expiring date, like milk?
Lessard: No, thank goodness it doesn't. The people in the U.K. have actually opened some of these drums and tested them after five or seven years. We've done some tests on our own products after ten or fifteen years. They still have their efficacy as long as they haven't been opened. When you open the vessel and you introduce moisture, air, organisms, then there's some possibility for degradation. But as long as they stay sealed, they keep their effectiveness 20 years, probably.
