Offshore Compliance Services
Get your maritime idea off the dock.
Offshore Compliance Services helps founders and maritime-adjacent businesses move hard cargo, clear hard rules and build companies that can scale.
- 27°46′N · 82°38′WSt. Petersburg, Florida
- Licensed U.S. Customs Brokersince 2008
Who you'd be working with
OCS is Clark Buffam's advisory practice. His career has been in customs and in oil, gas and offshore energy logistics, and he has founded and run vessel operators, offshore contractors and a software company. OCS is where that experience goes straight to people building something: an export program, a new vessel play, or a company that touches the water but doesn't yet know the rules.
- Today: Chairman & CEO, TLR – Total Logistics Resource, Inc.
- Founder: American Heavy Lift International (AHLINT), SeaPath Contractors
- Co-founder: American Offshore Services, SEA.O.G
- Software: Digital Operating Solutions LLC, which brought usebase.io to market
- Licensed: U.S. Customs Broker since 2008
- Depth: Jones Act, ITAR/EAR, CBP, offshore energy and government sealift
Where we can help
The best work usually starts when someone says, "We've never done this before." These are the problems OCS takes on most often, for:
- Early-stage founders
- Vessel buyers and sellers
- Marine service companies
- Offshore energy suppliers
- Defense and government contractors
- Shipyards and fabricators
- Foreign buyers of U.S. assets
Vessel and asset export
U.S.-side general contracting for buying and shipping vessels, rigs and heavy equipment abroad: sourcing, yard prep, USCG documentation, export licensing questions, loadout and transport.
Know the rules first
Plain answers on customs, ITAR/EAR, sanctions screening and the Jones Act before you commit money: what applies, what it costs and where it can stop you.
Selling to Uncle Sam
Getting registered, reading solicitations, finding the right teaming partner and shaping a bid that fits how MSC, MARAD, USTRANSCOM and DoD actually buy.
Scale the operation
Org design, KPIs, quoting and onboarding processes, and AI tools that take manual work off your team.
Partnerships and roll-ups
Structuring teaming agreements, seller-financed acquisitions and joint ventures, and making introductions across yards, operators, brokers and capital.
Pressure-test the idea
A working session on your plan: market, tonnage, regulation, cost and who you need on your side. You leave with the hard questions answered or clearly named.
The kind of work
Client names stay confidential. Typical programs look like this:
- Exporting U.S. vessels, such as crew boats, as deck cargo on heavy-lift ships for overseas buyers, with OCS as the U.S. general contractor for sourcing, yard work, export licensing review and loadout.
- Preparing, documenting and transporting drilling rigs and heavy equipment for export to overseas owners.
- Restructuring a logistics company's operations and rolling out AI tools across the team.
- Shipyard, design and capital partnerships for U.S. vessel builds.
- Marine logistics and contractor teams for U.S. offshore construction and decommissioning projects.
How we get underway
Set the course. Hand you the tools. Get out of your way.
- Chart it. A first call on what you're trying to do, what's in the way, and whether OCS is the right fit.
- Scope it. A written scope with deliverables, timeline and price, so you know what you're buying before you start.
- Run it. Advisory hours, a fixed project, or full general contracting where OCS is your single U.S. point of accountability.
Project contracting is cost-plus and open-book. You see the documented costs, plus a stated administrative fee, and there are no hidden markups.
Tell me what you're building
Send two lines on the idea and your timeline. If OCS isn't the right fit, we'll usually know who is.
Based in St. Petersburg, Florida. For broader partnerships with small businesses, see working together. Articles live on the Offshore Compliance Services blog.