Lunel： I think there is very much a movement, not only within Europe, but also with North America as well. I mentioned that the trials that are taking place in September will also involve not only the European states, but also North America, and Exxon in particular. On the specifics of mechanical and dispersants, there is research that is going on in both. As I hoped to emphasize in my talk, despite the different emphasis between the U.K, and Norway, I think actually the differences are very small. It is purely a matter of which response method one wants to use first. Both options are viewed with an open mind in the U.K. and Norway. And I think that is becoming the case in North America. And, to me, it would seem a reasonable way to go forward-to leave both as an option.
There is joint research on dispersants. In terms of mechanical recovery, there has been less actual research on mechanical recovery methods, largely because it is viewed as a relatively well-established industry. There have been very few innovations in the area of mechanical recovery in the last 10 years. Where there are new challenges, there is joint research. And we are working particularly with France on recovery at sea and also recovery of oil emulsion from shorelines. And we had anticipated some trials in September on oilmulsion. They have been postponed, probably until next spring. But there, we would anticipate it being a joint research program. And I think if you have techniques that you feel would be appropriate to test in field trials, then as a possible collaborative program, we are always very interested in that.
Gainsford： I would like to expand on that from the government point of view. We prefer to have a mixed bag of clubs. We want to have the capability to disperse and also to recover at sea. It comes down to cost. And you have heard the American option, which is extremely effective but is costly. We haven't gone down that line, I think because we don't have the intention of stationing dedicated ships all round the U.K. coast to deal with the risk assessment. I think in Norway they have a more targeted risk assessment from the actual oil rigs. And therefore, mechanical means can be focused more rapidly. In our case, we need to respond within hours to anything out to the 200 mile zone all round the U.K. and Northern lreland. There is no way we could do that by mechanical means initially.
So that is the main reason we rely on aerial dispersants as the prime means of counterpollution. And it can be implemented within 2 to 3 hours anywhere within the 200 mile zone. But if the conditions are right, and the threat is there to the environment or to the coastline, we would support that, as we did with the SEA EMPRESS, with mechanical recovery.
Around this table, there are lots of experts, but my understanding is that in no major oil spill has mechanical recovery recovered more than 10%. And that is borne out by evidence from previous incidents. That is just a fact.
Observer (H. Rydland, The Marine Group)： I think first of all maybe we have to appreciate that Japan might be slightly more sensitive to damage to the marine environment than many other countries around. This includes the use of dispersants. I would like to take this opportunity to make a few comments, and perhaps ask one question.
For any method to be effective in fighting an oil spill, you need to have the proper hardware, the proper software, and it needs to be applied in time. When it is being said here that in no major oil spill has mechanical recovery recovered more than 10%, I think one has to keep in mind that in most of these cases, no equipment has been deployed which has been proper for use offshore to recover oil under those conditions. This includes the SEA EMPRESS. And it has not been deployed in time.
When it comes to the SEA EMPRESS incident, when the French navy was engaged with a Transrec skimmer system, that system successfully recovered a substantial amount of oil, and I think that to reply to Nishigaki-san's query about test results for the Transrec, I think those results are available from the report that the French navy made on the SEA EMPRESS operations.
