Project Experience
Clark Buffam has spent nearly 20 years on marine, offshore and project logistics. He has run shore bases and agency for offshore campaigns and moved heavy and oversized cargo on U.S. rivers and coastal waters. He has also kept vessels and cargo on the right side of customs, Jones Act and Outer Continental Shelf rules.
The work is grouped by type. Client and project names are left out.
Offshore energy campaign logistics and marine agency
Shore bases, port agency and logistics for offshore construction, drilling and subsea campaigns in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, Mexico and the Caribbean. Jobs ran from a single port call to multi-year programs. Some needed a dedicated project team and CBP-bonded warehousing. Others were crew logistics or getting a pipelay, drilling, diving or survey spread across the border.
- Nine-month deepwater pipeline installation campaign (2013–14): a 15-person shore team handled 250+ port calls, 6,000+ crew changes and 2,500+ tonnes of freight, with zero lost-time incidents and zero customs penalties.
- Five-year port services and vessel-agency program for an offshore drilling contractor's Gulf and Caribbean fleet (2019–2024): 678 jobs across Louisiana, Texas and Trinidad.
- Cross-border mobilization of a subsea grout and ROV survey spread from Texas into Mexico in about 15 days, including customs, vessel compliance and DP trials (2017).
- Delivery-voyage support for a newbuild well-intervention semisubmersible and agency for a cold-stacked jack-up (2014–2015).
- Delivery of heavy thrusters to a working drillship by DP2 offshore supply vessel (2025).
Offshore wind port and marine coordination
Marine warranty survey, load-out supervision, port captaincy and vessel agency on the first U.S. East Coast offshore wind builds. Much of it had never been done here. This included new handling procedures and coordination of Jones Act feeder operations between port and installation contractors.
- Turbine OEM marine warranty survey and load-out supervision at a Northeast marshalling port (2023–24): 70 inbound vessels and more than 400 turbine components.
- Port captaincy for 62 Jones Act feeder-barge load-outs on the same project.
- Vessel agency and port logistics for two service operation vessels, three crew transfer vessels and a helicopter during commissioning and O&M (2023–2025).
- Crew-visa and Outer Continental Shelf compliance for foreign survey vessels working on U.S. offshore wind leases.
Inland and coastwise heavy and project cargo transport
Turnkey barge moves of wind turbine components, process modules and heavy equipment on the Mississippi, Illinois, Missouri, Ohio and Columbia–Snake rivers and along the Gulf Coast. That meant finding the route and the landing, picking and stowing the barges, chartering towboats, running surveys and handing off for the last miles by road. Blades ran from 54 m to 80 m. Some jobs were a single tow and some were seasonal programs of about 20 barge rafts.
- Multi-season inland blade programs for turbine OEMs (2019–2023): hundreds of 54–80 m blades, plus tower sections, nacelles and hubs, delivered to Midwest wind farms through river landings developed and reused across projects.
- Coastwise transport of LNG process modules on a large Jones Act deck barge for a Gulf Coast export facility (2023–24).
- Barge transport of an air-separation-plant cold box from New Orleans to an upper Ohio River site, with extended storage (2023).
- Petrochemical module tows on owned 260 x 54 ft deck barges under a master contract of affreightment with a global heavy-lift contractor (2024–25).
- Turnkey heavy-lift move of a power-generation engine: jack-and-slide, floating crane, barge and oversize road haul (2024).
Crew transfer vessels and Jones Act fleet development
Adding U.S.-built, U.S.-flag vessels for offshore wind. He specified and contracted new crew transfer vessels, put them on multi-year charters and set up ownership and financing that met the Jones Act. Towboat and deck-barge charter agreements backed up the barge work above.
- Construction contract for a 30 m twin-hull high-speed crew transfer vessel to an in-house design (2022).
- Multi-year time charter of a newbuild U.S.-flag crew transfer vessel supporting a Northeast offshore wind developer's lease areas (2023–2025).
- Master fully-found and bareboat towboat charters, and a master deck-barge bareboat frame agreement, to support a Gulf and inland barge fleet (2024–25).
Project cargo, PMO and specialized moves
Oversized, high-value and urgent shipments, planned and run by a licensed customs broker who is also the project manager. The work covers method statements and risk assessments for load-outs, finding charters, and temporary exports.
- Risk assessment, method statement and job safety analysis for loading concrete-coated line pipe onto a geared multipurpose vessel in tandem lifts (2026).
- Seven-figure temporary export of television production and communications equipment to an overseas filming location: AES consolidation and duty-free re-entry planning (2026).
- Out-of-gauge, upright-only marine drive cabinets prepared for urgent airfreight to a vessel (2026).
Trade compliance, customs and Jones Act advisory
Customs brokerage and regulatory advice for vessel operators, offshore contractors and importers. Typical work: CBP entries and export filings, ships' spares, temporary import of vessels into Mexico, USCG and OPA 90 requirements, B-1 OCS crew visas, Section 301 and 232 measures, and Jones Act questions on the Outer Continental Shelf.
- Helped launch an in-house customs brokerage unit for ships' spares, working with CBP port leadership (2015).
- Mexican vessel temporary-importation and port-compliance packages for U.S. and European dive and survey contractors (2017–2021).
- Line-by-line tariff classification under the 2026 stacked regimes (MFN, Section 232, Section 122) for marine spare parts.
- Implementation support for Section 301 vessel fees, mariner-credential requirements for technical personnel, and duty on foreign repairs to U.S.-flag vessels (2024–25).
- Policy paper proposing a transparent Jones Act waiver process for Outer Continental Shelf work.
Marine and offshore software
Software that turns field logistics into usable data. It covers project costs, vessel agency, cargo chain of custody and equipment tracking for compliance.
- Project cost-control and vessel-agency coordination platforms for the marine and offshore industry.
- Mobile cargo chain-of-custody and condition-reporting app using barcode and RF-beacon scanning and auto-generated photo reports (2022–23).
- Trade-compliance equipment tracker for offshore drilling assets that links customs data to recertification deadlines (2026).
U.S.-flag heavy lift and vessel conversion
The U.S. is short of Jones Act-compliant heavy-lift ships. His current work looks at converting government float-on/float-off tonnage to commercial semisubmersible service. It also includes a phased plan to charter and reflag ships, paired with domestic shipbuilding, to meet U.S.-flag cargo requirements.
- Conversion pathway for an expeditionary transfer dock slated for inactivation: class reactivation, cargo-worthiness survey and cargo-specific engineering (2025).
- Phased U.S.-flag fleet strategy with a domestic shipbuilder for proposed U.S.-flag cargo requirements (2026).
Tendering and execution planning
Clark has also helped operators, EPC contractors, turbine OEMs and government buyers bid and plan work in drilling, subsea, offshore wind, heavy lift and defense logistics. The work has covered the Americas, Europe and Africa. Usually that means a logistics plan, a transport concept, a port or marshalling study and a cost model.
Speaking
Breakbulk Europe 2027, Rotterdam
Published articles
Written by Clark Buffam and published on his compliance firm's website.
- New Section 301 Vessel Fees: What You Need to Know About Implementation
- Breaking Down the Reciprocal Tariff Executive Order: What Importers Need to Know Now
- Section 232 Steel and Aluminum Tariffs: What Importers Need to Know for 2025
- Navigating Crew Visa Requirements for Maritime Operations: Key Updates from CBP Houston
- USTR’s Proposed Maritime Fees on Chinese Vessels: Breaking Down the Framework
- Port Costs are Too Damn High: APHIS Fee Hike is Crushing OCS Operators
- USCG Bombshell: Technical Specialists on US Vessels Now Need MMCs – Foreign Ships Don’t
- The SHIPS Act: Last Call for the U.S. Merchant Marine?
- Ship Spares in Transit: Ensuring Seamless Delivery for Foreign-Flagged Vessels in the USA
- US-Flagged Vessels, Foreign Repairs, and the Customs Duty Impact
- Maritime Salvage: Understanding Lloyd’s Open Form and Recent Case Studies
- What you need to know about Marine Cargo Insurance
- New Visas for Foreign Workers in Offshore Wind
- Watch out for the Harbor Maintenance Fee – It’ll get ya.
- Aint no business like Customs Business
- The role surety companies play in the US
- Customs Bonds – what vessel operators need to know
- CBP – Safeguarding our border and promoting economic growth
- Customs Clearance on the Outer Continental Shelf.
- USCG Electronic Notice of Arrival and Departure
- What are the arguments against US Offshore Wind?
- What is the Jones Act? The Basics Explained
- A Quick Guide to Coastwise and Foreign Points on the Outer Continental Shelf.
- What is the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS)
- What is a Certificate of Financial Responsibility?
- B1 OCS visas and the Outer Continental Shelf
- All about international carrier bonds
- What you need to know about Salvage and Marine Firefighting contractors
- Non-Tank Vessel Response Plans
- Working US Waters? These are the USCG requirements you must meet
- Vessel types used during site assessment
- What is Site Assessment?
- Offshore Wind Development – 5 Phases
- What is Offshore Wind and why is it important?
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