On 4 October 2023, Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) introduced a new version of AOWFA in an attempt to address flaws in the House version of AOWFA (Section 336 of the 2023 Coast Guard Authorization Act). S. 3038 attempts to find a balance between the use of US and foreign-flag vessels to maximise opportunities for US companies and workers while avoiding both offshore oil and gas and offshore wind project delays. It tries to accomplish this by acknowledging the lack of US vessels for certain work and includes an implementation delay for export cable lay, inter-array cable lay, umbilical cable lay, and
The International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) has published a ‘Global Specialist Offshore Support Vessel Market Overview’ report highlighting the risks to the U.S. offshore energy industry, should the crewing legislation, referred to as the American Offshore Workers Fairness Act, be passed into law by the U.S. Senate. Allen Leatt, IMCA’s CEO, explained: “Increasing demand for the development of offshore energy sources is clear for all to see, in both the offshore wind and offshore oil and gas industries. The international fleet of construction vessels and their crew will be essential to meet national energy goals and the proposed crewing legislation
IMCA published a detailed Information Note on 14 March 2022 on Congressionally proposed manning constraints applicable to vessels operating in support of U.S. offshore energy projects. The proposal was passed by the House of Representatives on 29 March 2022 – the American Offshore Worker Fairness Act, Section 518 of the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2022 (H.R 6865). This measure is now pending before the U.S. Senate. “There remains much more to comprehend regarding the potential of this proposed legislation and there are many inaccuracies related to the purported rationale for the need for enactment of this legislation,” explained IMCA’s
On March 29, 2022 the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation – H.R. 6728 – that included a provision in Section 518 (as we have previously reported) that would impose burdensome new citizenship-based restrictions on crews of foreign flag vessels that work on offshore energy projects on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf (“OCS”). This provision would require mariners on foreign flagged vessels operating on the OCS be either U.S. citizens, permanent residents (green card holders), or citizens of the nation of the flag state of the vessel, in contravention of longstanding international principles that regulation and credentialing of crews are
The International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) provides the following update to its Information Note (1606) published on March 1, 2022 on H.R. 6728, a proposed amendment to the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (“OCSLA”) that would impose burdensome new citizenship-based restrictions on crews of foreign flag vessels that work on offshore energy projects on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf (“OCS”). This legislation remains under active consideration by the U.S. Congress. In order to better understand the adverse impacts of this legislation IMCA explains, from a practical perspective, how this proposed legislation would result in unnecessary and severe administrative burdens without
The International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) has published on its website a new Information Note that should be of interest to IMCA Members with offshore oil and gas and renewable energy businesses in the United States. This relates to new proposed legislative amendments called the American Offshore Worker Fairness Act that would dramatically change citizenship crewing requirements for vessels engaged in offshore energy support operations on the outer continental shelf of the United States. Specifically, Members should be aware of proposed legislative changes that would undermine a regulatory scheme that has served the offshore energy industry well for decades by
The International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) has published on its website a new Information Note that should be of interest to the offshore oil and gas and renewable energy industries based on a new development related to enforcement of the Jones Act and Vessel Crewing. Specifically, stakeholders should be aware of the evolving methods used by pro-Jones Act advocates to draw attention to offshore operations that they claim to be noncompliant with applicable coastwise and vessel crewing laws. An industry group has deployed a surveillance vessel, the Jones Act Enforcer, to monitor and report suspected Jones Act and other violations
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