Industrial Construction and Maintenance in Energy

Industrial construction is required to get energy facilities built and projects up and running, creating a demand for experienced, transitioning, and new workers in many cross-sector careers. 

Industrial Construction Brings the Building Blocks of the Energy Industry

Across the energy industry, industrial construction is required to build facilities and get projects up and running, with an ongoing need for maintenance. Careers in industrial construction span the entire industry with multiple cross-sector opportunities.

Did you know?

Maintenance work continues industrial construction careers in multiple energy sectors.

For example, shutdown and turnaround maintenance in Alberta’s oil sands sub-sector is expected to be a key driver of industry labour for several years.

Increasing need for workers in construction

With several sizable oil and natural gas facilities and energy projects in development, and more to come, additional skilled workers will be required in Canada’s industrial construction and maintenance sector. The large scale and tight timelines for construction projects mean thousands of workers are needed—far more than day-to-day operations.

Growing sectors bring new opportunities

Industrial construction careers are expanding with the advancement of new energy sectors. Canada’s emerging LNG sector, petrochemicals industry and active pipelines sub-sector are driving demand for skilled workers in industrial construction and maintenance. As new energy projects begin, more and more construction jobs will be created.

These jobs begin with engineering and design and go through the full lifecycle up to start-up and commissioning.

The five types of industrial construction

Energy industry activities occur in both heavy and light industrial construction, across multiple energy sectors, and overlap with several other important industries.

  • Retail
  • Banking
  • High-rise insfrastructure
  • Education
  • Healthcare
  • Recreation
  • Rail
  • Air
  • Road and water
  • Oil sands
  • LNG
  • Petrochemicals and refining
  • Pipelines
  • Power generation
  • Gas
  • Wind
  • Solar

Working in industrial construction

Construction projects include highly technical facilities such as LNG terminals, refineries, ethylene crackers, hydrogen plants, CCS facilities, as well as the pipeline infrastructure required to connect the resources to these facilities. Construction is playing an increasingly large role in not only oil and natural gas-related projects, but cleantech, including CCUS, hydrogen plants and renewables sector infrastructure.
Day in the Life

Beckey Unrau Heavy Equipment Technician Apprentice

Learn what it is like to work hands-on in the field—where the largest trucks in the world are used for daily operations—troubleshooting and fixing broken equipment. 

Read Beckey's story

“I used to be in procurement and I’d reached the top of what I could do. Now, I’m learning something new every day.”

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