The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Freeport’s marine pilots yesterday said their main goal is to “standardise” the industry in the Bahamas and ensure it meets international standards, amid concerns their “scorched earth policy” could undermine the city’s maritime and industrial concerns.

Five Bahamas Marine Pilots Association (BMPA) members, who met with Tribune Business yesterday, said their bid to provide services via an independent company was not motivated by money, as pilotage rates in Freeport Harbour would not change.

Kendall Williamson, the BMPA’s president, said the organisation wanted to establish one uniform standard for pilots operating throughout the Bahamas, given the rapid expansion in port operations across the archipelago in recent years.

Suggesting that the Bahamas was “a long way” from meeting the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) standards they are pushing for it to implement, Mr Williamson and his colleagues warned that maritime traffic in Freeport Harbour could “significantly decrease” come March 28 when their last resignations take effect.

But a well-known Freeport businessman, speaking to Tribune Business on condition of anonymity, said the BMPA’s vocal dispute with Freeport Harbour Company and the Bahamas Oil Refining Company (BORCO) threatened to undermine the very sector that had kept Freeport’s economy afloat over the past decade.

“That new Association appears seems to be employing a scorched earth policy,” the businessman said. “They want to be the exclusive provider of pilotage services in the Freeport area, and appear to be willing to advance their interests by making claims about the harbour area and jetty area that are quite to the contrary.”

They added that the BMPA was attempting to hold “a gun to the head” of BORCO and the Freeport Harbour Company, and accused the Association and its members of “trashing the reputation” and safety record of both companies to further their aims.

Pointing out that BORCO had been present in Freeport since 1955, having been founded as Freeport Bunkering, with various owners pumping more than $3 billion into it, the businessman said it and the Harbour Company had every right to choose how marine pilot services were provided.

“The BMPA’s members have withdrawn their services, and are saying: ‘You must hire us back as a monopoly service provider’,” the source added. “When you go out and trash the reputation of the companies, the same companies you want to provide services to, it’s unrealistic.

“They’re saying BORCO is an unsafe facility, but those pilots have operated at it for many years. Now they’re suddenly saying it’s unsafe, and hiring us independently will make it safe? Come on.”

The businessman described the BMPA’s plan as “ill thought out”, adding that its members also expected the two companies they had publicly savaged to provide all the equipment and vessels they needed for the job.

“I just find it stunning and sad,” they told Tribune Business, “because it’s damaging an industry that has been the bread and butter of the northern Bahamas for many years.

“The damage to the industrial sector is potentially real. We don’t have a strong tourism industry here to keep Freeport going, and they want to trash it because they want a monopoly.

“There’s a real concern the business community in Freeport has, especially on the industrial side. There’s a big concern. If you trash the companies’ reputation, people are not going to come. If you pursue a scorched earth approach, it does damage to everybody.”

The businessman indicated that the BMPA and the two companies are essentially at an impasse. There is no legal obligation on Freeport Harbour Company and BORCO to hire the association’s members, and both have been recruiting heavily for replacement pilots.

However, Mr Williamson and the BMPA pilots said the new hires would have little short-term impact on the companies’ pilot shortages, as both were down to two each.

They added that Protection and Indemnity (P&I) Clubs, which insure the vessels going into Freeport Harbour, knew the identities of all qualified pilots - implying that some ships may not be permitted to use the facility post-March 28 in their absence.

The five BMPA pilots told Tribune Business they handled some 3,800 ship movements for the Freeport Harbour Company in 2013, including vessels heading for the Grand Bahama Shipyard, Freeport Container Port and cruise ships. And, at BORCO, some 1,400 vessel movements were dealt with.

Mr Williamson told Tribune Business that if the dispute was not resolved by March 28, Freeport faced the potential loss of vital shipping business and the start of competition between rival pilots - something they warned threatened vessel safety.

“You’ll have ship owners being very concerned,” he said. “Ship owners will be getting notification from the Protection and Indemnity (P&I) Clubs.

“If I’m a ship owner and being told to look out for Freeport, I’d be very concerned. We might have shipping traffic slowing down greatly as of March 28 if it is not resolved.”

The BMPA members said they were “not confident at all” that a solution could be negotiated with Freeport Harbour Company and BORCO, one pilot, Edward Johnson, saying: “They’re not going to come around without outside pressure.”

They again suggested that the Government was going to have to intervene in the matter and resolve it in the best interests of all concerned.