The roots of Banc Metal Industries operations can be traced to the offshore Oil and Gas industry when in the early 1980's its predecessor became one of Canada's leading suppliers of refit, maintenance, upgrade and modification services to oil exploration companies and drilling contractors. This capability was utilized for the construction of the platform topsides for the Cohasset and Panuke Fields, Canada's first offshore oil development, and was further enhanced by the 3000 tons of fabrication and outfitting contract for nine utility shaft modules, the "Heart & Lungs" of the massive Hibernia GBS platform, one of the worlds ten largest construction projects in the mid 1990's.