The German government is looking into licensing dispersants for combating marine oil spills away from the coastline, Environment Minister Steffi Lemke said on Thursday. To date, the use of dispersants is permitted only in exceptional cases, according to Lemke, who was visiting the maritime emergencies command centre in Cuxhaven on the North Sea coast. The centre is responsible for emergencies on the North Sea and on the Baltic Sea. Dispersants were currently licensed along the North Sea coast within territorial waters reaching 12 nautical miles from the coastline, but not beyond, Lemke said. T…