Atco delivers trailers to Iraq

Without any fanfare, Calgary-based Atco, a worldwide supplier of portable housing, has been involved in some lucrative work in Iraq.

In the first major subcontract negotiated by a Canadian firm, Atco has been involved in building 1,400 trailers and is hoping to parlay that work into further rebuilding deals.

But the company has adopted an uncharacteristically low profile, issuing no releases on the subcontract, declining to say how much the work was worth and, apparently, leaving the distinctive Atco logo off the buildings.

While Atco, which operated in Iraq in the 1970s, has made a breakthrough in Iraq, other Canadian companies are left hoping for scraps that U.S. firms are not interested in, although the Canadian government has committed C$300 million to assist with reconstruction of the war-torn country.

Among the oil and gas related companies who have expressed interest in contracts are drillers Ensign Resource and Precision Drilling; E&P firms Talisman Energy and Nexen, both with extensive experience in world hot spots such as Sudan and Yemen; and the oilfield firefighter Safety Boss Canada, which took a leading role in snuffing out hundreds of blazes in Kuwait after the 1991 Gulf War.