Confident in its relationships and value added, Bantrel entered the next era prepared to complete several major projects in the Calgary, Edmonton, and Toronto offices. In 2009, two major clients—Suncor and Petro-Canada—merged and responded to market conditions by placing both the Suncor Voyageur and Montreal Coker projects into “safe mode”, eventually cancelling them. In May 2008, Bantrel was awarded front-end engineering activities (FEL-3) for the Surmont Phase 2 project—the largest SAGD project ever built at one time. In May 2010, Bantrel was awarded the EPC phase for the entire project, which included Central Processing Facilities and Field Facilities areas, opening the door for Bantrel to enter the upstream market and SAGD projects; construction at the Surmont 2 site started shortly after. Bantrel continued to have success and growth in the Canadian market throughout 2010, with Bantrel securing its first pipeline project with Enbridge Liquid Pipelines.
Bantrel Charter was successfully expanded beyond oil, gas, and chemicals to include the pursuit of opportunities in the Canadian power and resource sectors. Under this new mandate, Bantrel supported Bechtel on the ATCO HRTD project, the Iron Ore Company of Canada’s Concentrator Expansion project, and the Rio Tinto Alcan’s Kitimat Smelter Modernization project.
In early 2012, Bantrel Management Services Co. (BMSC) was created as an affiliate of Bantrel Co. as a means for providing support to Bantrel Co. and Bantrel Constructors Co. in the execution of our integrated engineering, procurement, and construction projects; they would provide construction management (CM) services, CM personnel, electronic tools, and work processes. CPC’s Surmont 2 Project was the first of many projects BMSC would take on.
In September of 2012, Bemac Construction Corp. (Bemac) was established. The intent was to provide direct hire construction services in the Canadian marketplace using CLAC affiliated labour. The formation of Bemac created an excellent opportunity to enter a newer segment of the construction market in Canada. It also represented a further extension to the services offered by Bantrel-affiliated companies.