re: #414 reine.de.tout

“nearly oil-free” not being good enough is absolutely true.
It’s one of the standards that rigs are supposed to meet - during drilling and production operations, they cannot spill anything that leaves even the slightest “sheen” on the water, not even a cupful, without being subject to fines. My husband deals with these requirements every time he’s out on a rig.

There are no exceptions in the regs for “foreign” vessels, that I know of. Why would that be acceptable? There will still be oil in the water subject to coming up on the beaches, harming marine life. Why would we allow that?

Because recovering the bulk of the oil, but maybe not quite all of it, would be a good thing at this point?

Those are excellent regulations as SOP. But not at the moment.