VES-3-15/17-RR:IT:EC 114158 GEV
John V. Simon
Manager
Offshore Construction
Amerada Hess Corporation
One Allen Center
500 Dallas St.
Houston, Texas 77002
RE: Coastwise Trade; Launch Barge; Platform Jacket; Outer
Continental Shelf;
46 U.S.C. App. 883; 13th Proviso
Dear Mr. Simon:
This is in response to your letter dated January 26, 1998,
forwarding your letter dated November 6, 1997, to the Maritime
Administration (MARAD), requesting approval to transport two
sections of your company's Garden Banks 260 "A" platform jacket
on the INTERMAC 650, a non-coastwise-qualified launch barge. Our
ruling on this matter is set forth below.
FACTS:
Amerada Hess Corporation plans to install the jacket of its
Garden Banks 260 "A" platform in March and April of 1998, over an
offshore installation site (i.e., a 9-well template in Garden
Banks block 260 on the Outer Continental Shelf), in a water depth
of 1,648 ft. The dry launch weight of the jacket, without piling
and topsides, is approximately 28,890 short tons (25,800 long
tons). The jacket will be installed in two pieces, one (the
tower section) having a launch weight of approximately 20,190
short tons (18,030 long tons) and the other (the base section)
having a launch weight of approximately 8,700 short tons (7,770
long tons). Each section will be launched individually from the
INTERMAC 650, a U.S.-flag, foreign-built launch barge that was
constructed in 1980 and has a launch capacity of approximately
40,000 long tons.
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It is the position of Amerada Hess Corporation that since
the weight of the tower section far exceeds the launch capacities
of all coastwise-qualified barges with capacities of less than
12,000 long tons listed in MARAD's inventory of such barges
published in the Federal Register on September 6, 1994 (59 FR
46081), and since the INTERMAC 650 has a launch capacity
exceeding 12,000 long tons, was built on or before June 7, 1988,
and is documented under the laws of the United States, the use of
the INTERMAC 650 for the proposed transportation of the tower
section is in compliance with the applicable statutory
requirements.
With respect to the proposed transportation of the base
section by the INTERMAC 650, although its weight does not exceed
the listed launch capacities of all of the barges in the above-cited Federal Register notice, Amerada Hess Corporation has
submitted a copy of a report from Hudson Engineering, the
designers of its platform, concluding that the MWB 430, the
largest coastwise-qualified barge available for the
transportation and launching of the base section, is inadequate
for this particular task. Furthermore, since there will be
personnel of Heeremac, the installation contractor, aboard, and
inside of, the barge during the launch, in addition to the risk
of catastrophic loss of the jacket and barge as a result of
carriage of the jacket on an inadequately-sized barge, it is also
contended that there would be a significant danger to these
personnel in such a situation.
ISSUE:
Whether the proposed transportation of two sections of
Amerada Hess Corporation's Garden Banks 260 "A" platform jacket
by the INTERMAC 650 launch barge as described above would be
violative of 46 U.S.C. App. 883, as amended.
LAW AND ANALYSIS:
The coastwise law pertaining to the transportation of
merchandise, 27 of the Act of
June 5, 1920, as amended (41 Stat. 999; 46 U.S.C. App. 883,
often called the "Jones Act"), provides, in pertinent part, that:
No merchandise,... shall be transported by water, or by
land and
water, on penalty of forfeiture of the merchandise (or
a monetary
amount up to the value thereof as determined by the
Secretary of
the Treasury, or the actual cost of the transportation,
whichever
is greater, to be recovered from any consignor, seller,
owner, importer,
consignee, agent, or other person or persons so
transporting or causing
said merchandise to be transported), between points in
the United States
...embraced within the coastwise laws, either directly
or via a foreign
port, or for any part of the transportation, in any
other vessel than a
vessel built in and documented under the laws of the
United States
and owned by persons who are citizens of the United
States...
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The coastwise laws generally apply to points in the
territorial sea, defined as the belt, three nautical miles wide,
seaward of the territorial sea baseline, and to points located in
internal waters, landward of the territorial sea baseline, in
cases where the baseline and the coastline differ.
Furthermore, 4(a) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act
of 1953, as amended (67 Stat. 462; 43 U.S.C. 1333(a)) (OCSLA),
provides, in part, that the laws of the United States are
extended to:
...the subsoil and seabed of the outer Continental
Shelf and to all
artificial islands, and all installations and other
devices permanently
or temporarily attached to the seabed, which may be
erected thereon
for the purpose of exploring for, developing, or
producing resources
therefrom...to the same extent as if the outer
Continental Shelf were
an area of exclusive Federal jurisdiction within a
State.
Under this provision, Customs has ruled that the coastwise
laws and other Customs and navigation laws are extended to mobile
oil drilling rigs during the period they are secured to or
submerged onto the seabed of the United States OCS. The same
principles have been applied to drilling platforms, artificial
islands, and similar structures attached to the seabed of the OCS
for the purpose of resource exploration operations, including
warehouse vessels anchored over the OCS when used to supply
drilling rigs on the OCS.
Title 46, United States Code, 883 was amended by the Act
of June 7, 1988 (Public Law 100-329; 102 Stat. 558). Among other
things, Public Law 100-329 added the so-called 13th Proviso
(i.e., the launch barge amendment). Under this provision,
...The transportation of any platform jacket in or on a
launch barge
between two points in the United States, at one of
which there is an
installation or other device within the meaning of [43
U.S.C. 1333(a)],
shall not be deemed transportation subject to this
section if the launch
barge has a launch capacity of 12,000 long tons or
more, was built as
of June 7, 1988, and is documented under the laws of
the United States,
and the platform cannot be transported on and launched
from a launch
barge of lesser capacity that is identified by the
Secretary of Transpor-
tation and is available for such transportation.
At the outset, we note that Customs has had previous
occasion to rule on the use of the INTERMAC 650 for the
transportation of hull and deck components for a tension leg
platform, in separate movements, each component weighing in
excess of 12,000 long tons, from points on the U.S. Gulf Coast to
a launch site on the OCS. (Customs ruling letter 110783, dated
February 14, 1990 (following holdings 7 and 15 of Customs Service
Decision (C.S.D.) 89-115), clarified in Customs letter
110421/110228, dated September 1, 1989) Such transportation was
deemed to be in compliance with the above-cited 13th Proviso.
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In regard to the proposal currently under consideration, we
have determined that approval of the contemplated transportation
should be granted. As a starting point, it is clear that unless
otherwise excepted by the law, the use of a coastwise-qualified
launch barge would be required. In regard to this exception, we
note that the INTERMAC 650 has a launch capacity exceeding 12,000
long tons, was built as of June 7, 1988, and is documented under
the laws of the United States. In regard to the transportation
of the tower section of the subject platform jacket, its
approximate weight (18,030 long tons) far exceeds the carrying
capacity of any coastwise-qualified barge identified as required
under law by the Department of Transportation. Although the same
cannot be said with respect to the base section (approximate
weight of 7,770 long tons), it is the position of MARAD that the
transportation of either section could not be accomplished safely
by any known-coastwise qualified vessel. Furthermore, MARAD has
concluded that these sections could not be transported by a
launch barge of lesser capacity that is identified by the
Secretary of Transportation and is available for such
transportation.
Accordingly, the use of the INTERMAC 650 in transporting the
tower and base sections of the subject platform jacket in
separate movements as described above would be in compliance with
the 13th Proviso to 46 U.S.C. App. 883.
HOLDING:
The proposed transportation of two sections of Amerada Hess
Corporation's Garden Banks 260 "A" platform jacket by the
INTERMAC 650 launch barge as described above would not be
violative of 46 U.S.C. App. 883, as amended.
Sincerely,
Jerry Laderberg
Chief
Entry Procedures and Carriers
Branch