HUTCHINS

Feature: Cianbro Earns Maritime Stripes

When Cianbro Corporation approached Petrodrill, an international rig-owning company with Brazilian and American shareholders, about completing two partially-built oil rigs in 2002, some thought Cianbro President and CEO Peter Vigue was out of his mind. "What they didn't understand is that Cianbro has a secret:our people," said Vigue. "Our people were ready, willing, and able to take on this challenge. And, with two completed rigs to their credit, they were right." The Maine firm had no experience or track record in oil rig construction when Vigue sought out the Petrodrill project. One of the East Coast's largest construction companies, Cianbro was best known for large civil and heavy industrial projects. Two of the company's most recent major projects before taking on the rigs included North America's largest cement plant in northern Maryland and the eastern seaboard's heaviest lift span bridge in New Haven, Conn. Vigue holds an engineering degree from Maine Maritime Academy, but he wasn't necessarily looking to branch the 2,200-member, employee-owned company out into shipbuilding. What he was looking for was a project that would permit many of the 1,200 workers based in Maine to work there instead of traveling to project sites out of state. What he found was a pair of incomplete oil exploration rigs, orphaned by the bankruptcy of their original contractor.