More Spokane and Coeur dAlene-area businesses are looking closely at selling goods and services in the booming oil-sands development area in Alberta after they sent representatives on a trade mission recently to Edmonton and Calgary, the provinces two biggest cities.


Four Spokane-area businesses, a Rathdrum, manufacturer, two educational institutions, and others sent delegates on the trip.


Randy Rugg, an international sales rep with United Coatings Manufacturing Co., of Spokane Valley, who flew over part of the oil sands with a handful of other delegates, says, You dont even understand it until youre up in the air. Its quite a large scope of work thats going on. In our industry, I think the potential is very large to do business there.


John Davis, vice president and general manager of Stratford Building Corp., of Rathdrum, also went along on the flyover, and like Rugg, was impressed.


What it really did in terms of my business was validate the extent and scope of the oil-sands project and the underlying infrastructure that was there, Davis says. Theres several areas that my company can participate in or be active in.


Albertas oil-sands deposits cover three areas that combined are about the same size as the state of Florida. As of late last year, the oil industry had invested $47 billion (Cdn.) to extract oil there from the deposits of bitumen, or oil-laden sand, and $18.7 billion is projected to be spent on construction this year, the Athabasca Regional Issues Working Group says. It says another $67 billion in projects are conservatively forecasted to be completed by 2012.


The industry produced more than 1.3 million barrels of oil a day in the oil sands in 2007, and that could rise to 3 million barrels by 2012, the group says.


U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, one of the trips leaders, said in a phone interview as the delegates made their way home March 28 that the burgeoning production in the oil sands has implications for energy security in the U.S., which uses 21 million barrels of oil a day.


Theyre recognizing that right now the U.S. is dependent for oil, McMorris Rodgers said. Were getting it from all over the world. They know that we need oil. They have it. They see it as meeting the interests of both countries.


Asked about the potential for trade, McMorris Rodgers said, The conversation was very positive. She called the potential for expansion of the oil sands huge, and said, Calgary is the economic star right now in Canada.


Stratford Building Corp. could produce fabricated work-force housing at its plant in Rathdrum for shipment to the oil sands, says Davis. He says the plant supplies 80 percent-completed modular single-family homes to builders, who sell, assemble, and complete the dwellings. It has established relationships with some builders in Alberta and British Columbia that have enabled it to keep all 70 of its employees on board despite the current downturn in the U.S. housing market, Davis says.


Some companies in Alberta and British Columbia produce such housing, but because of the oil-sands boom, those companies are so busy now they are unable to fill new orders until well into 2009 or even 2010, while Stratford can fill new orders in four to six months, Davis says.


Its the time-to-occupancy thats the key factor, Davis says. He adds, Theres significant need for the next seven to eight years projected for the workers theyre going to bring in. Oil sands companies in the Wood Buffalo region of the Athabascan deposit estimate theyll be hiring 6,000 employees between 2007 and 2012 to work in that area and will be replacing another 8,500 employees who will be lost due to attrition.


During the trip, Rugg met with two Canadian makers of specialty coatings, and he says United Coatings is asking them to submit some of its products for use on projects in the oil sands.


Were working on specs with them right now, he says. Its still pretty early. These types of projects take quite a bit of time when youre working on specialty things.


The Spokane company makes coatings for use in protecting concrete and steel, some of which would work well to protect ore carts, mining trucks, pipelines, and oil storage tanks, he says.


Another delegate on the trade mission, David L. Coffman, the Spokane-based president of Coffman Engineers Inc., says U.S. companies will have opportunities in the oil sands if the U.S. and Canadian dollars remain roughly equivalent in value and oil prices stay strong.


Because the U.S. dollar was worth much more than the Canadian dollar for many years, Canadian vendors long enjoyed a big cost advantage against U.S. competitors when competing to do business in their own country, but with the two currencies trading at about par, that advantage is going away, Coffman says.


It was like there was an economic wall there; now, that wall is coming down, he says. I think it would be really prudent for business in Spokane, Eastern Washington, and the northern tier states to evaluate this opportunity. Were doing some preliminary findings on the hurdles of doing business across the border.


Coffman Engineering has been doing work in Alaska for 29 years, including jobs for the oil industry, which should help it gain entre to do business in Canada, Coffman adds. Still, because outside businesses face provincialism when they come into new areas, one of the firms strategies is to affiliate with Canadian engineering firms so it can work with them rather than compete with them, he says.


Mark Peters, executive director of the Spokane-based International Trade Alliance, says, I think all of the private companies that went on the trip felt there was strong potential for additional business to come out of the trip.


Two of the companies that went on the trip were invited by Canadian counterparts to attend the Calgary Stampede, which is scheduled July 4-13 this year, Peters says. Companies often link up during the event to do business, he says. Also, the alliance will have a presence Sept. 23 and 24 at the Oil Sands Petroleum Show, in Edmonton, Peters says.


In addition to United Coatings, Stratford Building, and Coffman Engineers, Huntwood Industries Inc., and Brooklyn Iron Works, both based here, sent delegates on the trip, as did Greater Spokane Incorporated, KSPS-TV, Washington State Universitys Applied Sciences Laboratory, and Spokane Community College (SCC), Peters says. He says SCC wanted to explore whether it could offer at its campus part of the certified programs Alberta requires for diesel mechanics and welders. He adds that the provinces two main technical colleges offer such programs, but are completely maxed out in terms of their capacity.


The Spokane delegation flew to Edmonton on March 25, for a briefing by the Edmonton Economic Development Corp., Peters says. The next day, the group attended the National Buyers/Sellers Forum there. Delegates attended seminars in the morning and in the afternoon had one-on-one meetings, which had been set up in advance, with Canadian businesspeople and others, Peters says. The Spokane companies were able to post informational forms about themselves on the Web site of the forum, he says.


The flyover, flown for a fee by Caribou Air, was that morning. The charter airline has so much business flying shift workers to the oil sands from eastern Canada that its looking at buying between 10 and 20 Boeing 737s and other planes, Peters says. Its airplane put down briefly in Fort McMurray, Alberta, which is 300 miles north of Edmonton and in the center of oil sands development. That night, the Spokane delegation had a small trade show and reception of their own, he says.


The group flew on to Calgary, where delegates spent the day in meetings with their Canadian counterparts. Also, an affiliate of NorthernLights Transmission, a Calgary company that has proposed building a high-capacity power line from northern Alberta to Eastern Oregon, hosted a reception for the Spokane delegation and their potential business partners, Peter says. Asked why the NorthernLights affiliate hosted the reception, Peters said he thought it had a desire to engage Eastern Washington.


On the final day of the trip, McMorris Rodgers and the five Spokane businesses met with a representative of Suncorp Energy, one of the most active oil companies in oil-sands development, and some members were briefed on oil-sands investment and government policy.


Contact Richard Ripley at (509) 344-1261 or via e-mail at editor@spokanejournal.com.