August 6, 2008

KWH Contractors of British Columbia win Suncor contract

Richard Gilbert

staff writer

A company from Delta, B.C. has been awarded a contract for a structural steel modular construction project at Suncor’s Voyageur expansion program, in Fort McMurray, Alberta.

Suncor Energy began construction of the $20.6 billion Voyageur project in March 2007.

The expansion plans include the construction of a third oilsands upgrader in Fort McMurray to convert bitumen into higher-value crude oil, expanded bitumen production, and various infrastructure and utilities.

The new upgrader is being constructed about half a kilometre southwest of existing Suncor upgrader facilities near the North Steepbank extension and Millennium mines.

Empire Industries Ltd. announced that a wholly-owned subsidiary won a subcontract worth more than $12 million.

“Empire has more than tripled its field installation and shop fabrication capacity over the past two years and is in an excellent position to fulfill these types of contracts,” said Guy Nelson, CEO of Empire.

Ideal Welders Ltd. (IWL) awarded the subcontract, which calls for the assembly of 179 modules, totaling more than 5,000 tonnes of structural steel at its module yard outside Edmonton.

The modules are about 24 feet high, by up to 120 feet long.

“We started assembly in October of this year and the work will be undertaken over a period of about 15 months,” said Jeff Mullins, president of KWH Contractors, which is a subsidiary of Empire Industries.

“About 20 modules will be worked on at the same time and there will be a continual flow of modules being built and shipped to the site.”

IWL has the main contract with Suncor for pipe fabrication, installation and modularization.

“This is the first time a B.C. division of the company has been involved in upgrader construction,” said Mullins. “This is a strategic move by Empire Industries to get more involved in the upgrader construction market.”

Project Voyageur, which is the centrepiece of Suncor’s growth strategy, is a multi-phase plan to increase oil sands production to more than 550,000 barrels a day by 2010–2012. This represents a 120 per cent increase over 2004 production.

The construction of the upgrader will employ about 4,000 workers.

Empire Industries Ltd. is a steel fabrication and construction service provider that operates its business through four wholly owned subsidiaries.

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