More Jones Act Waiver Voyages Went Unreported Than Previously Known

The number of foreign-vessel voyages missing from federal Jones Act waiver records appears to be larger than previously known, with new analysis identifying at least 15 movements that never showed up in the U.S. Maritime Administration’s public tally.

The finding expands on Bloomberg Government reporting covered by gCaptain last week, which identified at least a dozen domestic voyages conducted under the emergency waiver but absent from MARAD’s reports.

Colin Grabow, a research fellow at the Cato Institute and longtime critic of the Jones Act, took a closer look at vessel-tracking records and data from the National Ballast Information Clearinghouse. His analysis identified 14 tanker voyages with strong indications that foreign vessels loaded cargo at one U.S. port and discharged it at another without appearing in MARAD’s records.

Those voyages included seven shipments to California, three to Puerto Rico, two to Hawaii, one to Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania, and one to New Haven, Connecticut.

The 14 tankers had a combined cargo capacity of roughly 5.2 million barrels, although Grabow cautioned that figure represents an upper limit rather than the amount actually transported.

The evidence was built largely around vessel draft changes and port calls. In the typical pattern, a tanker arrived at a U.S. loading port near ballast draft, appeared considerably deeper when reaching another U.S. port and was then recorded substantially lighter at its next destination—strong evidence that cargo had been loaded and discharged domestically.

A possible 15th unreported voyage involved the Liberian-flagged LPG carrier, which arrived in Honolulu on May 22 from Port Neches, Texas.

The findings deepen questions surrounding MARAD’s accounting of traffic conducted under the emergency Jones Act waiver.

Federal rules require vessel owners or operators using the waiver to report completed voyages to MARAD within 10 days. MARAD then publishes those reports, making the agency’s database the primary public record of foreign vessels operating in otherwise restricted domestic trades.

MARAD told Bloomberg last week that it does not have legal authority to compel operators to submit the reports. Jones Act enforcement falls to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. That means MARAD’s published numbers should be treated as a minimum rather than a complete accounting of waiver activity, Grabow said.

The missing voyages are also feeding opposite arguments in the long-running debate over the Jones Act.

Grabow argues that the additional shipments show the waiver opened domestic energy routes that were either lightly served or effectively nonexistent under normal Jones Act restrictions. Among the examples are Gulf Coast fuel shipments to Hawaii and sharply higher movements to California and Puerto Rico.

Jones Act supporters have focused instead on the lack of reporting and the extent to which foreign vessels were able to enter domestic trades without appearing in the government’s public records. American Maritime Partnership President Jennifer Carpenter last week called the reporting failures “outrageous” and urged greater congressional oversight.

A gCaptain review of MARAD data published Sept. 16 counted 255 completed movements associated with the original March 17 waiver and its May extension. The newly identified voyages suggest that total did not capture all foreign-vessel activity.

The administration has since tightened the process. A second 90-day extension that took effect Aug. 17 requires companies to first submit a Vessel Availability Request so the government can determine whether a qualified domestic vessel is available before authorizing foreign tonnage.

The current waiver runs through Nov. 15.

Subscribe for Daily Maritime Insights

Sign up for gCaptain’s newsletter and never miss an update

— trusted by our 107,434 members