U.S.-flag shipowners want to haul oil reserves

   A group representing U.S. shipping companies is expressing concern that if President Obama allows the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to be tapped that the oil industry may once again try to move much of the oil using foreign vessels.
   American Maritime Partnership (AMP), a broad-based coalition representing U.S.-flag vessel operators, maritime unions, and allied interests, says “release of oil from the SPR in 2011 resulted in nearly 50 waivers of the Jones Act, allowing the transportation of the oil on foreign vessels when U.S.-flag vessels were available to assist.”
   It says a new Congressional law now requires the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Department of Transportation (DOT) to comply with certain requirements to maximize the use of U.S.-flag vessels for the transportation of oil from future SPR drawdowns before Jones Act waivers are approved.
   The Jones Act requires ships operating between ports within the U.S. to use ships built and registered in the U.S. and employ U.S. mariners. But the industry said oil companies tailored their drawdowns from the SPR last year so they could use cheaper, foreign-flag tankers. 
   In a letter to DHS, DOT, and the Department of Energy, AMP said it was “troubled by the decisions during the last SPR drawdown to issue waivers for foreign-flag vessels, employing foreign workers to transport oil from the SPR despite the fact U.S.-flag vessels were available to assist.”
   It said it “recognizes that there may be circumstances where waivers of the Jones Act are necessary, but we want to work with the Departments to maximize the use of available American vessels, employing American workers, in the transportation of SPR oil should another drawdown occur.”