How one client got it done in extreme northern climate

Jackfish-Project
Devon Energy Jackfish project

For the construction of the Jackfish 2 plant in the boreal forest of Alberta, the client was hired to sandblast the insides of two oil tanks and install a protective coating. Two tanks were worked on simultaneously. The challenge was to keep the temperature of the steel above 15 degrees Celsius (59°F) in this cold northern climate.

The project ran for two months starting December 2009. One tank was warmed by two Bear heaters and three Frost Fighters, providing a total of 2.5M BTUs. The other tank was warmed by a single Desert Air heater with 0.9M BTUs.

The tank warmed by the Desert Air heater was maintained at 35 degrees (95°F), even when the outside air temperature dropped to -47 degrees (-53°F). The work on the tank finished ahead of schedule.

As soon as the Desert Air heater became free, the client took the two Bear heaters offline (1.4M BTUs) and moved the Desert Air heater to the unfinished tank.

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