Irving Oil spending $60 million on maintenance at Saint John refinery

CTV Atlantic: Irving Oil spending $60M on refinery The annual turnaround maintenance project at the Irving Oil refinery in Saint John last fall is finally getting underway this week.

Irving Oil says it will spend $60 million over the next six weeks as 1,700 extra workers are brought in to perform scheduled maintenance at Canada's largest oil refinery in Saint John.

“We had originally scheduled it for the fall, saw an opportunity where the units were running quite well and thought we could extend it into this year,” says Mark Sherman, general manager at the Irving Oil refinery.

Known in the refining industry as a "turnaround," the project is aimed at improving safety, reliability and environmental performance.

In total, about 2,000 people will be involved with the project, including 1,700 additional tradespeople.

“Essentially, it’s an inspection that would augment any inspection we can do on the run,” says Sherman. “It’s extensive cleaning, it’s replacement of pieces and components of equipment.”

Most of the jobs will go to New Brunswick residents, but some people will be hired from outside of the province.

Stephen Beatteay of the Saint John Construction Association says the project is a positive boost for the industry going into 2014.

“Last year we had a terrible year, by everybody’s account,” says Beatteay. “Last year, looking in to ‘14, we didn’t think it was going to be much better. This is a nice way to start the year.”

He says people in the industry hope the turnaround will turn things around for the region, as the project could encourage residents to stay in the province instead of heading out west.

“Hopefully, like I say, we get seven weeks of this in, perhaps something else will come along to keep them busy as the summer goes along,” says Beatteay.

Sherman says the refinery can process more than 320,000 barrels of oil per day and typically exports 80 per cent of its production to the United States.

The company says gasoline exported from the refinery represents 19 per cent of all U.S. gasoline imports.

The project is expected to wrap up in mid-April. Irving Oil says the next scheduled turnaround won’t happen again until fall of 2015.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Ashley Dunbar and The Canadian Press