Otto Candies Iii News

Industry trade group the Offshore Marine Service Association (OMSA) announced the addition of four CEOs to its board of directors.The new board members include Wes Bordelon, Chief Executive Officer, Bordelon Marine; Stacy Jo Stanley, Chief Executive Officer, Offshore Oil Services, Inc.; David Dantin, Chief Executive Officer, Odyssea Marine; and Lasse Petterson, Chief Executive Officer, Great Lakes Dredge and Dock."With the addition of these four executive leaders, OMSA pays homage to its roots while welcoming expanded opportunities in emerging energy frontiers…

Subsea services company Aqueos Corporation said it has entered into a multi-year agreement with vessel owner Otto Candies for the charter of the US-built multi-role DP-2 diving support vessel (DSV) Kelly Ann Candies.The high spec vessel has a built-in 14-man Draeger saturation diving system complete with three-man bell, moon-pool bell launch with cursor, self propelled hyperbaric lifeboat (SPHL), 60-ton crane and berthing for 76 persons. The vessel has a Canyon Offshore work class remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) with an in-built…

A vastly modernized U.S. offshore support fleet awaits the opportunity to perform Jones Act work in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. Foreign operators, already here, predict disaster if a cabotage rule change takes effect. A change proposed by the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in its Customs Bulletin & Decision newsletter promises reversal of a 40-year practice that, until now, allowed the use of non-coastwise-qualified vessels in the transportation of pipeline repair material; anodes; pipeline connectors; wellhead equipment; valves and valve guards; damaged pipelines; platform repair material; and similar cargo from one domestic point to another. The proposed change gave all interested parties until April 18th to make comment, a deadline which has now come and gone.

Todd Hornbeck will succeed Otto Candies III as chairman of the Board, Robert Clemons will advance to Vice Chairman and Ben Bordelon will serve as Secretary and Treasurer. Jim Adams, who had been working in his interim position since August, was named as the association’s President and CEO. “I want to thank Otto Candies, III for his remarkable leadership through a very challenging time for OMSA. He served the membership well and we will continue to rely on his counsel as he retains his seat as a member of the board of directors,” said Todd Hornbeck.

While ten letters in all, “moratorium” might as well be the foulest four-letter word in the Gulf of Mexico oil patch right now. On May 27, the Obama Administration ordered a halt to drilling in water depths more than 500 feet, effectively cancelling 33 drilling projects and reversing a tide of industry optimism in the region. Bill Foret, president of Golden Meadow, La.-based Abdon Callais Offshore LLC, said the company could have placed 50 OSVs to work on April 19 — a day before BP’s Deepwater Horizon explosion, which killed 11 crew members and set off a gusher of crude 5,000 feet below the Gulf’s surface for more than 80 days. “The OSV market was showing signs of improving,” Foret said. Kurt Crosby, CEO of Crosby Tugs Inc., based in Golden Meadow, La., agreed.

The Offshore Marine Service Association (OMSA) announced the appointment of James Adams as interim President and Chief Executive Officer. Adams’ appointment followed the resignation of Ken Wells, who has led OMSA since 2004. Wells left the organization in order to pursue other opportunities.  Otto Candies, III, the chairman of OMSA’s board of directors stated, “We are sorry to see Ken go as he has served our organization and members energetically for six years.  We are excited that Jim Adams has joined us in an interim capacity while we conduct a national search for a new CEO to lead OMSA.”  Adams has held a variety of positions in government and public affairs and was most recently Vice President of Government Affairs for American Commercial Lines, Inc.

The Offshore Marine Service Association (OMSA) reacted to the Obama Administration’s moratorium on offshore drilling, saying it is already causing irreparable economic harm for America’s maritime industry. “We are already dealing with both an ecological and economic disaster. This kind of sudden and ill-conceived government policy can only make it worse,” said OMSA Chairman Otto Candies, III. On May 27 the Administration ordered a halt to offshore drilling in water depths over 500 feet, canceling 33 drilling projects, an action that will have both immediate and long-term negative economic consequences for the businesses that are associated with drilling.

“Anapaula” and “Veronica”, the first vessels delivered by Austal USA, have now completed nearly 2 years of hard but successful work in the southern Gulf of Mexico. The two 150ft high-speed crew/supply boats have been operating in support of the Mexican offshore oil industry out of the port of Del Carmen since they were delivered, ahead of schedule, in January 2002. The boats are owned by Candies Mexican Investments, an affiliate of Otto Candies, LLC, a Louisiana-based marine transportation…

The Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) program is overly complex and could create the same delays for the maritime industry that recent changes in passport rules caused for American travelers, according to testimony by Offshore Marine Service Association Vice Chairman Otto Candies, III. Candies’ delivered his comments at a July 12 Congressional hearing. The hearing was held by the Coast Guard and Marine Transportation Subcommittee of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to assess the progress on the TWIC Program. At the hearing, witnesses from the Transportation Security Agency and the Coast Guard acknowledged that the program is roughly six months behind schedule.