Interview: OMSA’s Aaron Smith

Anyone who knows Aaron Smith, president and CEO of OMSA, know that he is passionately focused on helping to grow the U.S. maritime industry and staunchly defending the U.S. Jones Act fleet and mariners. We caught up with Smith Smith on the sidelines of the Workboat Show in New Orleans. Highlights of the conversation are below – including an update on the American Offshore Worker Fairness Act – the full interview can be seen on Maritime Reporter TV.

Let’s talk a bit about the offshore energy industry today. What is the focus of OMSA?

Right now is an exciting time for the offshore industry and for OMSA. One of the things we're really working on is called the American Offshore Worker Fairness Act, legislation says is that says, "When a foreign flag vessel works in the US sovereign waters, that vessel has to participate and work by the same rules that apply to US-flag vessels." When our vessels work, they legally have to have the crew match the flag of the vessel. Our vessels are US flagged. That means they're US-built, US-crewed, US-owned.

Well, if a foreign vessel is operating, doing the exact same thing in our, again, sovereign waters, then why should they not participate by the same rules? Why should they not have people that are American citizens on board or have citizens that match the flag of their vessel? So if you have a Norwegian vessel, Norwegian flag, it should have Norwegian citizens or American citizens. That's fair. That's equal. That is a market that we can compete with. But what we see far too often is we see the exact opposite. We've been tracking foreign flag vessels, and we're going to be coming out with a report soon that will release this. So far since 2016, we have seen 84 foreign flagged vessels work in the US offshore wind market. They have worked for a combined total of 16,648 days and have supplied a total of 4,750 jobs to foreigners.

Now, how do those vessels work and why do those vessels work? It's not because they don't have a US component. There are plenty of US, mariners and US vessels that can do this work. In fact, 51 of those 84 vessels do the exact same thing as a US flag vessel. So, the fact that they work and we don't is because of one factor. Crew costs. Crew costs can be anywhere between 40% to 65% of the vessel operator's OPEX. And right now, if you have a vessel that statutorily has to employ Americans and a vessel that can statutorily employ people, including some people making $30 a day, we can't compete. So, we're really forcing that issue and we think we can get it done before the end of the year to really make a difference in the offshore industry.

So, with all of that, can you give guidance on the economic impact? What has been lost from US mariners and US maritime companies with the scenario that you just laid out?

Well, so I think what you look at is you look at, what we have found is that on each vessel, the difference between a wage, if you take a standard vessel crew rate and you apply a foreign crew cost and a US crew cost, it's about $9,500 a day on a standard crew US. It's about $4,000 for a foreign vessel. So you think every one of those 4,750 mariners that had worked on those foreign vessels, that could be a job that you know, ABs are right now making north of $300 in our industry, engineers are making up to $875 in our industry, captains are sometimes crossing into four digits on day rate.

Look at each one of those. That's a six figure, and you apply that. Think about that. 4,750 foreign mariners that could be six figure careers. Just think about how much that is taking out of our economy, and moreover, taking out of US shipyards that could then be building for the US Navy. Those mariners could be working in the Ready Reserve Force, which MARAD has said, we need more mariners than the Ready Reserve Force. They are taking not only economic security away from us, they're taking national security away from us.

Okay, Aaron. Again, always great to talk to you specifically, and again, we talk about it in our pages all the time, and I look at it both from US perspective and the global perspective as you know. One thing I think that's universal is a lack of mariners or the ability to attract that next generation. Can you discuss anything that OMSA is doing and or OMSA membership is doing to attract that next generation to let them know what kind of careers, what kind of good paying careers are available to them?

It's a great question because one, this is a universal problem. Like we've seen, there are not enough teachers. But there are not enough teachers in US classrooms, that doesn't mean we go and get Ukrainian teachers to come into our classrooms. We don't have enough plumbers. That doesn't mean we import Chinese plumbers into our country. We shouldn't do the same for the US maritime industry. But OMSA members, by and large, have been finding enough mariners. We, of course, can do more to attract people into this industry and to train people in this industry, but first, we have to create a market. And we could dump all the money we want to into training, but if a foreign mariner will work in the United States for $30 a day, it doesn't matter how much training we have, that guy's going to go to work and the US Mariner is going to sit at home watching Maury Povich.

Maybe that's an outdated reference and why I need to worry about these outdated references, are one of the things that what we've really tried to do is tell Americans about what a great opportunity there is in this industry. And so we have started a video campaign. You can find us on YouTube, Offshore America, you can find us on Instagram, Offshore America, and we have highlighted these great stories. I did this over the summer and man, I had such a good time going down, walking the deck plates with these people, talking to them. Macy Hedgepath, a mate with Hornbeck, awesome story. Shannon Molosson has worked his way up the industry. John Fontenot, vice president for HR with Odyssey Marine, started as an OS on deck on a supply boat and is now in charge of hiring all of the mariners for Odyssey Marine.

Just amazing stories and really trying to get people to understand what a great opportunity our industry provides so that they will look at it and what they see is that it's connected,` you're not offshore and isolated out there. You have internet, you're coming home, you spend more time at the house than a nine-to-fiver does. It's some great stories that we've quite frankly been remiss about telling, and I think this channel, where it's not Aaron Smith, some suit, telling the story, but it's those individuals telling the story themselves. So I think that's something everyone should check out. It's a really great story, and I'm glad those people can tell their story themselves.