Pelly Bay Petroleum Storage Facility

About the project

Pelly Bay is in the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut, Canada. Originally named after Sir John Pelly, who was governor of the Hudson’s Bay Company at the time it was established as a trading post, the community changed its name to Kugaaruk in December 1999. ‘Kugaaruk’ means ‘little stream’ in Inuktitut, the traditional name of the small brook that flows through the village.

In 1980, Pelly Bay was part of the Northwest Territories, and CPI was hired by the government to construct a Petroleum, Oil and Lubricants (POL) Storage Facility for the community.

The remote site presented immediate challenges. Yellowknife was the closest major centre at 600 KM away and the community is accessible only by air. All items needed for construction were shipped first to Yellowknife by truck, including all materials and machinery. Everything was then loaded onto a CC-130H Hercules and flown to Pelly Bay. It would require 30 loads to get everything to the site, including 20 30-foot steel slabs for building the tanks on site.