“Over the past 24 months, Sunshine Oilsands completed and commissioned the West Ells SAGD facility, a 5,000 bpd plant located north-east of Fort McMurray. The project history involves multiple executive and leadership teams and a variety of third-party service providers. Despite re-commencing construction with incomplete engineering and a completely new team (both internal and third-party), a handful of partners have emerged as leaders in supporting Sunshine’s efforts to achieve completion of our inaugural facility.
As a result of their exceptional work, Sunshine’s Facilities Engineering team strongly endorses Protrace Engineering’s services from both a design engineering and construction support perspective. Work championed by Protrace for the West Ells project stands out amongst our industry partners in that:
- Protrace’s leadership team quickly aligned with Sunshine’s new focus on fit-for-purpose design and developed their deliverables to suit
- Protrace’s field team demonstrated clear expertise in optimizing solutions to capitalize on sunk cost and minimize rework
- Protrace’s organization structure adjusted to meet Sunshine’s shifting needs. Value remained a critical focus and Protrace has actively worked to remain extremely competitive by offering the right resources at the right time
Protrace Engineering has consistently met Sunshine’s needs throughout our partnership and they anticipated, and proactively dealt with, challenges and identified opportunities which would have otherwise gone unrealized. Although Sunshine is transitioning to a focus on operating the West Ells facility, we will continue to call on Protrace and recommend their services to peers in Alberta’s oil and gas business community.”
–Ken Moore and Thomas Smekal, Sunshine Oilsands – Facilities Engineering
“ProTrace Engineering has delivered a successful start to our Christina Lake project. Their knowledgeable team have delivered new ideas and pragmatic solutions that have provided us with the best design that meets our needs. ProTrace Engineering is professional, strategic, cost effective, and always looking out for their client’s best interest. Their technical and project management expertise provided an end product that was within schedule and budget, and one that we are proud to own and operate. In our experience, they continuously demonstrate their commitment to excellence and we look forward to working with them in the future.”
– Francois Beaurivage, MEG Energy
“ProTrace Engineering has done an excellent job with the construction power design for the NWR project. They have been successful in managing updates to the preliminary input data, as well as the managing of the interfaces with multiple contractors. The end result being a very thorough design that is cost effective, robust, and flexible. Just what we wanted…. “
– Cletus Mullin, North West Redwater Partnership
“Does the oil and gas industry in Alberta really need an engineering services provider specializing in electric heat tracing( EHT)? I think so. A prevailing trend in our industry is to treat EHT as a commodity and not as an engineered system essential for the protection and safe operation of our refineries and pipelines. Freeze-ups in refineries cause leaks, and leaks cause fires. As an industry we would be well advised to focus on the engineering of EHT systems.”
“ProTrace Engineering has the requisite skills and experience to deliver effectively engineered EHT systems without any biases or allegiance to any particular manufacturer of EHT products. I have worked with the principles of ProTrace engineering over the past 10 years and recommend their engineering services for EHT systems without qualification. I was happy to provide this letter of recommendation because ProTrace is providing a quality independent engineering service that is sorely needed in our industry.”
– D.E Morency, P.Eng.
“ProTrace Engineering was contracted to perform the electric heat trace (EHT) engineering design services for MEG Energy’s Stonefell Terminal Project. Protrace also provided construction support for the EHT and Electrical disciplines. The work commenced February 2012 and was completed December 2013.
The MEG Stonefell Terminal, which is located near Bruderhelim, Alberta, is dilbit and diluent storage, trim and pipeline transport facility. The terminal has a capacity of approximately 900,000 barrels of above ground product storage and is connected to the Access Pipeline System.
ProTrace Engineering seamlessly interfaced with the EP Contractor’s Piping Group in order to develop EHT isometric Deliverables. ProTrace was also responsible for generating EHT Bill of Materials and EHT cable schedules.
ProTrace Engineering performed their work in a highly efficient manner requiring minimal interface coordination. Their deliverable were of excellent quality resulting in minimal issues during construction. Protrace was proactive in communicating schedule concerns and was effective in forecasting costs. ProTrace also provided timely and insightful response to electrical RFI requests from the Construction Management Team.”
-Eldon Lazar, P.Eng., MEG Energy
