Kentz Corporation Becomes Telecom Operator for Fort Hills Oil Sands Project in Canada

Kentz Corporation Limited, the mother of the Kentz engineering and construction group, has just been awarded a telecommunications contract for the Fort Hills Oil Sands Project in Canada, making it the go-to telecommunciations operator for the whole project. Its responsibilities as part of the contract include engineering and procurement services for the project's IT infrastructure.

The multi-year contract will be operated via Kentz's Calgary engineering center of excellence in Alberta, which is one of Kentz's five regional centers.

The Fort Hills Oil Sands Project is headed by a partnership between three companies: Suncor Energy, Total E&P Canada Ltd., and Teck Resources Ltd. The whole operation is managed by Suncor Energy Operating, Inc.

"Kentz is delighted to be adding Suncor to our blue-chip client base and this award demonstrates the strength of our Canadian business," said Michael Murphy (News - Alert), COO at Kentz. "Since entering the Canadian market in 2008, we have built a strong Technical Support Services business in the region and are currently providing a range of TSS services to many of the projects in the oil sands region, including the Kearl oil sands project. We look forward to working with Suncor and developing this new relationship further in the Kentz way."

In other news, while Suncor's oilsands operations have been growing, it seems that it’s not turning as much of a profit as anticipated. Following a $1.5-billion writedown facing the company early last month because of its "Voyageur" project, Suncor is now also being affected by falling oil prices. Net earnings fell from $4.3 billion in 2011 to $2.8 billion in 2012.

This quarter, Suncor has lost $562 million due to these complications, as well as a $1.2-billion tax bill it’s disputing.

The Voyageur upgrader is meant to give the company more oil processing power, adding 200,000 barrels per day of heavy oil sands bitumen processed into a lighter class of oil.