A new work contract will be boosting the employment lines at a production facility in Melville.
Babcock & Wilcox Canada Ltd. (B&W) has announced it has been awarded a contract to supply four modularized boilers for the Kearl Oil Sands Project being developed north of Fort McMurray, Alta. B&W's Melville facility will complete the component fabrication and modularization of the boilers while the Cambridge headquarters will fabricate selected components like headers and wall panels. The completed pressure part modules are expected to be shipped from the Melville facility to the Kearl project in 2013.
As a result, B&W public relations and communications manager Natalie Cutler says, employees at the Melville plant can be confident their services will be needed for the foreseeable future.
Cutler also expects the new contract to increase the company's employment numbers in Melville.
"In our business the work is cyclical so the additional four boilers (ensures employment is needed in Melville) to that 2013 date," Cutler explains. "We have 47 employees there right now and we will be hiring an additional 12 employees at the Melville facility now."
The new contract boosted the Cambridge facility's workforce as well, with the company recalling 35 employees at that site because of the new contract.
In Melville, the boilers will be created in "chunks" and shipped as modules to the Kearl site. Modularizing the boilers in Melville substantially eases the on-site construction needed at the Kearl site while also making the shipping process easier.
The boilers provided by B&W will create utility steam used to supply various processes at the Kearl plant which is producing clean bitumen for blending, transport and sale.
The new contract is in addition to the four modularized boilers Melville's B&W supplied to the Kearl project for its initial scope. The additional four boilers now being worked on will expand its capacity.
Melville's B&W facility is specifically tooled for the modularization of components for boilers.
