Keystone Ocean Services, Inc.

Keystone Ocean Services, Inc., a small business based in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, provides licensed and unlicensed mariner staffing and marine engineering support to the federal government as a prime contractor under total small business set-asides, with 100% of recent awards as direct federal contracts and no subcontract footprint. The company is a subsidiary of Chas Kurz & Co Inc. and competes exclusively under small business set-asides across its federal portfolio.

Keystone's federal work centers on marine crew staffing and vessel engineering support for oceanographic research. The company supplies licensed marine engineers (First Assistant Engineer, Second Assistant Engineer, Third Assistant Engineer), able-bodied seamen, ordinary seamen, chief cooks, stewards, oilers, and wipers to support NOAA's and the Navy's research and operational vessels. Representative work includes a $1 million delivery order from NOAA (September 2026, extending through June 2027) for licensed and unlicensed mariner support across NOAA's Ship Fleet under a total small business set-aside; a $4 million delivery order from NOAA (July 2025, through September 2026) for the same services; and a $1,975,015 not-to-exceed task order from NOAA (July 2024, through June 2028) for licensed and unlicensed mariner personnel. The company holds two significant indefinite delivery contracts with NOAA: a $9.16 million single-award total small business set-aside (awarded July 2023, through June 2028) for licensed marine engineers and crew staffing, and a $4.8 million single-award total small business set-aside (awarded September 2021, through October 2026) for licensed marine engineers.

Customer concentration is heavily weighted toward the Department of the Navy, which accounts for 204 awards and $101.9 million in combined potential value—roughly 65% of the portfolio by dollars. NOAA follows with 193 awards (44% of award count) and $42.6 million in combined potential value. The Department of Transportation Maritime Administration places 27 awards worth $12.8 million. The two customer rankings align closely; the Navy's dominance spans both volume and dollars, while NOAA's smaller dollar share reflects the prevalence of lower-value individual crew-rotation task orders.

Keystone's parent vehicle footprint shows heavy concentration on two Navy IDIQs: Indefinite Delivery Contract DTMA8C11024 carries 109 task orders and $54.2 million in combined potential value, while DTMA8C11023 carries 120 task orders and $60.6 million. NOAA's two IDCs (1305M221DNMAN0028 with 115 task orders / $4.8 million and 1305M223DNMAN0018 with 32 task orders / $10 million) represent the next tier. All parent vehicles are Navy or NOAA small business set-aside IDCs accessed via the SeaPort-e multiple award contract vehicle.

Activity trajectory shows concentration in 2022–2023, with 69 awards in 2022 and 72 in 2023, followed by a sharp decline to 2 awards in 2024, 1 in 2025, and 1 in 2026. This pattern reflects exhaustion of task-order capacity under the IDCs rather than customer churn; the source data captures only 424 recent awards, and the vendor's invoiced-revenue scale likely masks this apparent decline. Five awards worth $8.8 million in combined potential value face ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, creating modest recompete exposure on both the Navy and NOAA vehicles.

Keystone operates exclusively as a prime contractor—100% of awards are direct federal contracts. The company has no recorded subcontract footprint and does not team below other primes. Place of performance spans Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania and Newport, Oregon, reflecting the geographic distribution of NOAA's research vessel fleet and Navy vessel operations.