A New Life for Marystown Shipyard

A major U.S. construction company was reported to have bought the idled shipyard in Marystown (Newfoundland, Canada) with the intention to reactivate it to build platforms for the White Rose offshore oil project. Terms of the sale to Peter Kiewit Sons' of Nebraska were not disclosed. Calgary's Husky Energy, the operator of the $2.3-billion White Rose project, was also expected to announce the project's official launch in St. John's. Frank Smith, spokesman for Peter Kiewit Sons' Co. Ltd., a wholly owned Canadian subsidiary of the American construction giant, declined to comment on the pending deal.

Peter Kiewit Sons Co., which has about two dozen employees in Newfoundland, joined with Aker Maritime of Norway to bid for the design and construction work on a massive oil production ship similar to the one now being used on the Terra Nova offshore oilfield. Like Terra Nova, the White Rose ship -- known as a floating production, storage and offloading vessel or FPSO -- will likely be built in Korea. But the so-called topside modules will be built at Marystown by Aker Maritime Kiewit Contractors. The Marystown shipyard has had a troubled history since it was privatized by the provincial government in the 1990s. Friede Goldman Halter of Mississippi bought the money-losing yard from the province in 1998 for $1. In return, the new owners promised to bring more work to the yard or face up to $20-million in fines.Four years later, the shipyard remained without work and the Canadian government has avoided imposing any fines.