Financial ripples from the multibillion-dollar oil-sands industry in the Canadian province of Alberta are already being felt in Montana, but few businesses will benefit from the development as directly as Berry Y&V Fabricators in Billings.

The company is busy moving into the old Holland Loader plant, at 2450 S. 32nd St. W, and hopes to do a majority of its fabricating work for companies operating in the oil-sand fields of northern Alberta, said James McCord, business unit manager.

The plant was purchased early this year by two large companies - Berry Y&V Industrial Contracting of Calgary, Alberta, and Bay Limited of Houston. This summer, Berry Y&V Fabricators signed a contract with Canadian Natural Resources Limited, whose multibillion- dollar Horizon Oil Sands Project will soon make CNRL only the fourth company operating an open-pit mine in the oil-sands industry.

The project got a boost in August, when it was toured by two of the richest men in the world, Warren Buffett and Bill Gates.

Berry Y&V's contract calls for the Billings company to build piping and modular equipment that can be fabricated here in Lego- like pieces, shipped to Alberta and assembled in the field. Processing plants in Canada upgrade the dense oil sands to the point where the crude oil is thin enough to go into pipelines for transport to refineries.

Canadian Natural has leases from the province of Alberta on 115,000 acres of land bearing an estimated 16 billion barrels of bitumen, with approximately a to 8 billion barrels recoverable with existing mining technologies.

McCord said the fabrication plant is awaiting the shipment and installation of some equipment, including overhead cranes, and will probably go into operation early in 2009. Berry Y&V Fabricators hopes to have as many as 400 employees - 90 percent of them skilled workers such as welders and ironworkers - by 2010.

The company is working on other contracts related to the oil- sands industry, McCord said, and also plans to support the refining and petrochemical industry in Billings and elsewhere in Montana.

Effects on refineries

All three refineries in the Billings area will also have a finger in the oil-sands pie. Pat Kimmet, manager of the CHS refinery in Laurel, said 90 percent of the crude oil entering the Laurel refinery is already heavy crude, with high sulfur and asphalt content, from conventional wells.

Part of the refinery's feedstock is "western Canadian select" or WCS, a blend of various crude oils including some processed from the oil sands of northern Alberta.