By Liz Hampton and Devika Krishna Kumar
EDMONTON, Alberta/NEW YORK, May 12 (Reuters) - Fort McMurrayresidents Tony Bussey and Barritt Wilson are among the fortunateof those who live in the Alberta town ravaged by wildfire - bothof their homes are fine.
However, they and a number of others are going to see theircommutes change, joining an already large group of people whoare flown in and out of the region to work on oil installations.
Last week, fire raged unchecked through the Canadian city ofFort McMurray, leading to a full evacuation, with many losingtheir homes and having to rebuild from scratch.
But Fort McMurray has long been an area that saw oilcompanies using fly-in-fly-out (FIFO), which lets companies getemployees to remote work sites, where they stay in camps,usually for a couple of weeks.
That will help some companies restart operations relativelyquickly after the devastating fire that has scorched roughly229,000 hectares (566,000 acres).
Others, like Suncor Energy, will be moving workersin and out of the region through temporary workforcearrangements from Calgary and Edmonton to help restartoperations.
The wildfire knocked out nearly half, or 1.07 millionbarrels per day (bpd) of Alberta's oil sands capacity and led tothe evacuation of about 88,000 residents, many employed by theenergy sector. Production is slowly trickling back in.
Bussey and Wilson, both full-time employees of Suncor, weretaking things in stride.
"I think it will be interesting (to) fly in and fly out,staying in the camp for the time being," said Bussey, whoanticipates living in an Edmonton hotel for several months.
With operations disrupted by the fire, the company is alsosupporting displaced residents who work at their facilities withadvanced compensation.
"Oil companies are releasing retention, which is like abonus, to us early just to help us through,' said Wilson.
Several major producers that pepper the oil sands, includingConocoPhillips Canada, Canadian Natural Resources, and others, may be able to resume operations fasterthan many would have thought, though there are logisticalchallenges.
For others it may take a bit longer, though companies areadjusting. Suncor, Canada's largest oil producer, does someFIFO, including at its Firebag facility, but tended in the pastto have employees live in the community they work in.
Suncor spokeswoman Sneh Seetal said the company will uselodges and camps for temporary housing, and employees willreturn when it is safe to bring people to Fort McMurray.
ConocoPhillips Canada, has about 23 percent of its Canadianworkforce listed as FIFO workers. Just 26 employees have FortMcMurray residences, or about 1 percent of Canadian employees.
Still, "the logistics to get everyone back on site will be achallenge and that is being worked in tandem with the operationsplan," ConocoPhillips spokesman Rob Evans said in an email.
Having a larger percentage of FIFO workers allows companiesto use existing camp sites and other resources to steerthemselves to recovery in the fire's aftermath.
About 78 percent of workers at the Horizon site owned byCanadian Natural Resources Ltd, Canada's largest independentpetroleum producer, are fly-in, fly-out, company spokeswomanJulie Woo said.
Companies that have more limited FIFO programs may insteadbe utilizing beds at workcamps. Suncor CEO Steve Williams saidat a press conference Tuesday that the industry has determinedthere are enough beds to meet everyone's needs.
Shell Canada spokeswoman Tara Lemay said that priorto the fire, the majority of Shell's staff lived in the FortMcMurray area, but the company does have a fly-in program, whichit introduced in 2014. The company will be flying staff in andout to help resume operations. (http://bit.ly/1rXoz2H)
(Reporting by Devika Krishna Kumar in New York and Liz Hamptonin Edmonton; Additional reporting by Allison Martell in Toronto;Editing by David Gaffen and James Dalgleish)
