A new analysis based on ship tracking records and information from the National Ballast Clearinghouse has identified at least 15 voyages of foreign tankers that are not recorded in the public records of the U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD). These findings indicate serious deficiencies in tracking and reporting voyages conducted under the Jones Act exemption.
Details of Identified Voyages
This analysis, conducted by Colin Grabow, a researcher at the Cato Institute, includes 14 tanker voyages that clearly show foreign ships loading their cargo at a U.S. port and unloading at another port. These voyages include seven shipments to California, three shipments to Puerto Rico, two shipments to Hawaii, one shipment to Marcus Hook in Pennsylvania, and one shipment to New Haven in Connecticut.
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In total, these 14 tankers had a loading capacity of approximately 5.2 million barrels, although Grabow has warned that this number represents maximum capacity and not necessarily the actual amount of cargo transferred.
Questions About MARAD Reports
The evidence collected is primarily based on changes in ship draft and port calls. Typically, a tanker arrives at a U.S. loading port with a high draft and then is recorded at the next destination with a significantly lower weight—which indicates loading and unloading of cargo within the country.
Another unidentified voyage involved an LPG carrier flagged in Liberia, which arrived in Honolulu from the Port of Nacogdoches, Texas, on May 22. These findings raise further questions about the accuracy of MARAD reports regarding traffic conducted under the Jones Act emergency exemption.
Federal laws require ship owners or operators to report completed voyages to MARAD within 10 days. MARAD then publishes these reports, and the agency's database is considered the primary source for recording the activities of foreign vessels in domestic trades. However, MARAD has stated that it has no authority to compel operators to submit these reports, which means that the numbers published by MARAD should be considered as minimums rather than a complete account of exempt activities.
These missing voyages also fuel conflicting debates about the Jones Act. Grabow believes that these additional shipments indicate that the exemption has opened domestic energy routes that are typically poorly served or practically nonexistent under the usual constraints of the Jones Act. In contrast, proponents of the Jones Act emphasize the lack of reporting and the extent of foreign vessels entering domestic trades without being recorded in government public records.
Additionally, a report published on September 16 indicates that 255 completed movements related to the initial exemption of March 17 and its extension in May have been recorded. The newly identified voyages suggest that this number does not encompass all activities of foreign vessels.
Since then, the Maritime Administration has tightened the reporting process, and a second 90-day extension that took effect on August 17 has required companies to first request access to vessels so that the government can determine whether a qualifying domestic vessel is available before allowing foreign diversity. The current exemption is valid until November 15.
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