Irving Oil Sets September Start for Saint John Refinery Turnaround

Irving Oil Sets September Start for Saint John Refinery Turnaround

Irving Oil’s 320,000-barrel-per-day refinery in Saint John, New Brunswick, will kick off a two-month fall turnaround in September, running through mid-November, according to a Reuters report via BOE Report.

Market Impact

Saint John is Canada’s largest refinery and supplies fuel across Atlantic Canada and the U.S. Northeast, making any extended outage there a notable event for regional fuel markets. Irving Oil confirmed the timeline on its website Friday, but did not disclose the scope of work for this year’s project.

For comparison, last year’s turnaround at the facility cost nearly $40 million and involved infrastructure replacements, equipment upgrades, and inspections of piping and key process units. If this year’s project follows a similar pattern, it points to a sizable, multi-discipline maintenance effort spanning roughly nine weeks.

What It Means for Subcontractors

• Mechanical, piping, and E&I contractors serving the Saint John area should expect bid packages or staffing calls to firm up over the coming weeks, with mobilization likely needed by early September and demobilization by mid-November.
• Scaffolding, insulation, and inspection crews should factor in a similar scope to last year’s $40 million turnaround, which included piping inspections and unit-level equipment upgrades, when sizing crew needs and equipment rental timelines.
• Regional labor providers in Atlantic Canada should anticipate a temporary surge in skilled trade demand (pipefitters, welders, electrical and instrumentation techs) concentrated in the Saint John, New Brunswick area from September through mid-November.
• Contractors with U.S. Northeast fuel supply exposure should monitor potential regional supply tightness during the outage window, since Saint John feeds both Atlantic Canada and U.S. Northeast markets.
• Firms that worked the 2025 turnaround should reach out to Irving Oil’s procurement contacts now, as recurring vendors are often prioritized for repeat scopes like piping inspections and infrastructure replacement.