On February 18, there was a major fire at Alon USA’s refinery in Big Spring, Texas. There were no fatalities in the fire, but four workers were injured. The entire refinery will be shut down for repairs for at least two months, and the FCC unit may be down longer than that. Here is another article detailing the fire.
Alon supplied about half of the CBO requirements for Sid Richardson’s Big Spring carbon black plant. Sid Richardson reports that its carbon black plant was not damaged by the fire, but it was operating at half capacity until new oil sourcing could be arranged. Sources at Sid Richardson now report that the Big Spring plant will return to full production levels this week. The company reports that with existing inventory and half production, no shipments were missed.