Ledcor began work on the Suncor Firebag Phase 3 SAGD project in 2007. The scope of work covered three major areas: Area 3000 (Water Treatment), Area 5000 (Steam Generation), and a significant portion of the Utilities and Offsite (U&O). Ledcor’s scope included the fabrication and assembly of 187 modules at  Module Assembly & Piping Fabrication Facility in Nisku, Alberta, as well as 310,000 diameter inches of offsite piping fabrication. 

The Firebag Stage 4 project was the next planned stage within a single integrated plot plan. Based on Ledcor’s excellent execution during Stage 3, Stage 4 was awarded as a sole source contract. Firebag Stage 4 was combined with the Firebag Stage 3 facilities to form a 125,000 barrels per day (BPD) bitumen production train sharing common facilities such as tankage, diluent production, de-oiling, and utility systems. The overall layout, construction execution, and start-up plans were developed to maximize economies of scale to reduce cost and minimize interference between operations and construction. Ledcor’s Stage 4 scope also included fabrication and assembly of 40 modules.

Ledcor’s scope for both Stage 3 and 4 included: 

  • Sitework
  • Concrete
  • Excavation & backfill
  • Off-site assembly of 227 modules
  • Module installation
  • Structural steel erection
  • Architectural cladding
  • Piping
  • Mechanical & HVAC 
  • Electrical
  • Electrical heat tracing
  • Instrumentation
  • Insulation
  • Pre-commissioning activities

Project Highlights

On November 13, 2012, Ledcor was awarded Suncor’s President’s Operational Excellence Award in the category of Reliability for our accomplishments at Firebag 4. The overall expansion was approximately three months ahead of schedule and the overall project was approximately 10% under the current budget estimate of $2 billion. Ledcor employed over 1,745 people at project peak and accumulated more than 2.2 million worker hours without a Lost Time Incident.