March 26, 2009 Giant X-bow completes first job for Veolia ES
The Viking Poseidon, the world’s largest Ulstein X-Bow vessel, has completed its first job in the Gulf of Mexico as part of the Veolia ES Industrial Service fleet of deepwater marine vessels.
Owned by Eidesvik Offshore and on contract to Veolia ES for eight years, the vessel was delivered to Galveston Bay in February.
The 130-meter-long, 25-meter wide vessel has a deck area of 1,720-square meters.
The Poseidon has a maximum speed of 14 knots and can accommodate a crew of up to 106. Its advanced features, which will allow it to deploy heavier loads and operate further offshore, include two work class ROVs with launch and recovery systems (LARS), an HMC-250T active heave compensated knuckle boom crane and a 15-ton electrohydraulic deck crane with folding boom.
The ship is also equipped with two moon pools and a helideck.
You can download the vessel data sheet [B]HERE[/B].
The Poseidon’s design technology and equipment will allow for greater deepwater capabilities at a time when customers are calling for such services.
Mr. Michel Gourvennec, President and Chief Executive Officer of Veolia Environmental Services North America, stated, “The Poseidon clearly complements the capabilities of our expanding Marine Services division. As the market for deepwater capabilities, particularly in the Gulf of Mexico, continues to grow, the Poseidon becomes a strategic asset that will put Veolia at the forefront of the marine services industry. We are happy to add her to our fleet.”
Veolia ES Industrial Services’ Marine Services Group includes a fleet of dive support vessels, undersea remote operated vehicles and highly qualified diver-technicians.
How many of these ships are going to invade our waters before somebody in Washington says enoughalready?!?
Internal Revenue Service directive wants foreign operators to pay fair share
U.S. flagged offshore service vessel operators are hoping the Internal Revenue Service follows through on a recent directive to its field officers to crack down on foreign vessels working in the U.S. offshore oil and gas industry.
Keith Jones, the IRS’ industry director of Natural Resources and Constructed told field officers that increased numbers of foreign flagged vessels working in the Outer Continental Shelf do not comply with federal filing requirements.
Specifically, the federal agency identified contracts performing services, such as seismographic testing, drilling, repair and salvage work. Other offenders are operators moving supplies and personnel between U.S. ports and the OCS and other foreign-registered boats that time charter.
Officials with New Orleans-based Offshore Marine Service Association said the IRS analysis confirmed their suspicions that foreign vessels working off the U.S. coast on federal deep-water leases were not paying U.S. taxes.
Ken Wells, the group’s president, said under the IRS guidance if a foreign vessel fails to pay taxes on U.S. work, the charterer must pay 30 percent withholding to cover the taxes owed. Domestic operators complain foreign operators would undercut their rates by sidestepping tax obligations, thus making it more difficult for U.S. operators to compete.
The announcement coincides with a Customs and Border Protection Agency review of its rulings regarding foreign vessels’ ability to move cargo to offshore projects from U.S. ports. Under the Jones Act, foreign vessels are prohibited from moving cargoes between U.S. ports and projects.
Wells said he sees the two efforts as “linked.”
“Not only do we believe these vessels have been carrying cargo that only U.S. vessels should carry, but now we find out they are cheating our country out of tax revenue, as well,” Wells said.
With OCS work quickly becoming the last frontier for OSV work in the Gulf of Mexico, any help to level the playing field at home and steer business back to domestic operators would be good news for the homegrown industry.
Anybody have the skinny on the Normand Clipper? I heard that it is a new addition to Veolia’s fleet. Saw her come into Galveston back in Sept 09 with stacks looking smokey. Understand recently she had been in South Carolina and now I see her again across the channel at shipyard in Galveston.
The NORMAND CLIPPER is in the GOM working in MMS EC 272.
If anyone suspects a foreign vessels is violating the Jones Act/Coast Wise Transport from U.S. Point to U.S. Point, you need to report this to OMSA. They have a confidential line/site that your name etc. is kept in confidence. The information provided will be verified prior to reporting anything to the authorities. They have a full time investigator on staff that will confirm or deny the information provided.
You want to do something about the Jones Act violations in the GOM. You need to stop complaining and report what you see. From what I understand, the initial answer is on the website at OMSA. I just emailed some info I came across and never heard any more from them regarding the violation. Next thing I know, CBP is boarding the foreign vessel and warned them that if they transported the cargo on their deck to an offshore point in the U.S. there would be Federal issues to deal with upon their return.
The end result I heard was that the cargo was tranferred to a U.S. vessel to transport. I guess something is working for the home team here. I will call everytime I see any suspected Jones Act violation loading out or better yet, hear about it and report the suspected transport ASAP before it is loaded.
Results: Foreign Flag conducted the work at the site while the cargo was delivered by U.S. Flag vessel. Thats how it works!! Foreign Flag has a job and U.S. Flag has a job. Win Win!!
[QUOTE=Jones Act Compliance Gulf;41927]Results: Foreign Flag conducted the work at the site while the cargo was delivered by U.S. Flag vessel. Thats how it works!! Foreign Flag has a job and U.S. Flag has a job. Win Win!![/QUOTE]
[B][I][U]Not Win/Win at all![/U][/I][/B] [B]AMERICAN MARINERS LOSE![/B] Every job on those foreign vessels is by code reserved for US Merchant Mariners under 33CFR141 (offshore vessel manning provisions in the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act) but nobody (including OMSA) has done a damn thing about that! NORMAND CLIPPER is a vessel over 3000grt so she would require unlimited tonnage mariners to man her so figuring a marine crew of 12 (x2 for rotations) means that one vessel is taking high paying work from 24 US citizens who pay taxes to the US Treasury. Assuming the average wage is $90k US and tax withholding is 33% that means $720,000 in federal tax revenue lost to our nation just for that one vessel…plus the spending of 24 Americans to the US economy (lets say 85% of the rest left over) which I think is $1,224,000. Multiply this times 20 vessels and you lose $14,400,000 in tax revenues and more important $24,448,000 to our economy! Not chump change and I have tried to be conservative in my calculations. I think there are more than 20 foreign manned vessels in the GoM and that they carry marine crews larger than 12. Hell, just the revenues that the men who man the BALDER alone don’t contribute to our nation most likely surpasses all my numbers combined. Reality might be as much as triple my calculations!
I have said it over and over here, until American mariners wake up to how these offshore service companies are circumventing the law and how many high paying jobs they are being denied, only then might our Federal Government do something like what is happening with the issue of cargo being carried by the foreign ships. [B][I]WHEN WILL AMERICAN MARINERS WAKE UP FROM THEIR COLLECTIVE COMAS! [/I][/B]