March 16, 2009

Oilsands Construction

Bird Construction asked to suspend work

Richard Gilbert

staff writer

Bird Construction Income Fund has been asked by Suncor Energy Inc. to defer work at their Firebag Village project in northern Alberta by the end of the month.

“We have two major contracts at the Firebag site,” said Paul Raboud, president and CEO at Bird Construction.

“One is for a camp called Firebag Village. The work camp has a central core that links with the living units and are prefabricated and brought to the site. We have another contract to do an administrative building, which is nearing completion.”

Raboud said there is another camp in the middle of the facility, which Suncor would like to relocate.

The contract for the work camp was worth $106 million, as a whole, and was expected to be completed by the fall.

The company said the deferred work had been valued at about $20 million.

According to Raboud, the deferred work is really not a huge deal in the overall scheme of things for Bird, but this is such a high profile job, they decided to make an announcement.

Suncor recently reported a $215 million loss for the fourth quarter of 2008.

In response, the company’s board of directors approved a revised 2009 capital spending plan of $3 billion.

As a result, construction on the Voyageur upgrader and Firebag Stage 3 are being wound down and the projects placed in a “safe mode” pending resumption of expansion work.

The cuts mean Suncor’s $20.6-billion Voyageur expansion project, which includes a postponed upgrader, along with expansion plans at its Firebag in-situ operations, have been delayed.

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