SAINT JOHN, N.B. – New Brunswick’s 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.
The company says the work will continue 24 hours a day, seven days a week, until the project is completed.
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, most of them from New Brunswick.
General manager Mark 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.