Salt River Project Exceeds Seven Million Feet of CableCURE® Treated Cables

HOUSTON, Oct. 28, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Willbros Group, Inc. (NYSE: WG) announced that a unit of its Utility T&D segment, UtilX, has exceeded seven million feet of CableCURE® treated cables for the Salt River Project (SRP) in Phoenix, Ariz. SRP started injecting cables with CableCURE fluid in 1998. At that time, they were experiencing more than 800 faults per year on primary underground residential distribution (URD) cables. The cable failures were increasing and they needed to mitigate the problem or face increasing customer dissatisfaction.

Fifteen years later, in September 2013, SRP and UtilX have partnered to successfully inject seven million feet of aged primary URD cable with CableCURE fluid saving SRP hundreds of millions of dollars in potential cable replacement costs.

"I can't think of any other sustained partnership that SRP has maintained for 15 years," said Rick Hudson, Engineering Supervisor/SRP. "This is a testament to the reliability impact that the rejuvenation of the cables once treated with CableCURE fluid can have on already aged cable assets. Failure rates are under control at SRP and this is due in part to the injection program that was started back in 1998 with UtilX."

Hudson has been consistently impressed with the attitude displayed by UtilX employees, especially their proactive responses when issues arise.  As a result, 15 years of partnership can lead to an amazing accomplishment, such as reaching seven million feet of successfully injected cable – or to put it another way having more than 1,325 miles of CableCURE injected cable still operating today without failure. Outages in the areas served by this cable are under better control thanks to the CableCURE process.

Hudson continued, "The supervision and long-term lead of employees like Mark McClure (Team Leader) have cemented the continuing nature of our relationship. His concern for the safety of his men and their equipment and our assets meets the same level of commitment to safety expected from our own personnel. The follow-through and level of importance given to SRP from UtilX management is amazing. They always have a sense of urgency in reacting quickly and thoroughly to any concerns we may share with them."

This excellent partnership has thrived for 15 years and seven million feet and both partners are committed to continuing this relationship through the foreseeable future. SRP hopes to continue to control the number of URD failures they experience and UtilX plans to continue to help them through this process in the same consistent and safe manner that both partners have demonstrated to date.

Salt River Project is the largest provider of electricity to the greater Phoenix area, serving nearly 970,000 electric customers.

Willbros is a specialty energy infrastructure contractor serving the oil, gas, refining, petrochemical and power industries. Our offerings include engineering, procurement and construction (either individually or as an integrated EPC service offering), turnarounds, maintenance, facilities development and operations services. For more information on Willbros, please visit our web site at www.willbros.com.

CONTACT:
Michael W. Collier
Vice President Investor Relations
Willbros
713-403-8038

SOURCE Willbros Group, Inc.