Refinery malfunction leads to Arkansas asphalt shortage

08/06/2008

By Mark Friedman

The major supplier of liquid asphalt in Arkansas has cut production by 50 percent after a mechanical failure in its refinery was discovered in July.

Lion Oil Co. of El Dorado, Ark., expects to have the refinery repaired and back to producing 10,000 barrels of asphalt a day in September, says Lion Oil's spokesman Wallace Moody. The company is now producing only 4,000 to 5,000 barrels of asphalt a day.

Moody says Lion Oil produces most of the liquid asphalt for Arkansas and has customers in Texas and Louisiana.

The shortage of liquid asphalt is delaying some paving projects in central Arkansas.

"It's going to reduce the amount of work we’re able to do here in the next six weeks," says Steve Cranford, owner of Cranford Construction Co. of Little Rock, Ark, which is handing several paving projects in the state. "It's created a shortage."

"Most areas of the state are affected" by Lion Oil's reduction, says Mark Lamberth, one of the partners of Atlas Asphalt Inc. of Jonesboro, Ark. Lamberth said his company gets asphalt from a Memphis, Tenn., firm so he hasn't seen a shortage yet.

"That's not to say it won't happen," he adds. "But we're the exception to the rule."

During a July inspection, Lion Oil's workers discovered that the tubes inside its refinery were bent.

"As a result and to be cautious, we were required to curtail our processing of crude," Moody says. The replacement tubes have to be manufactured and then shipped to El Dorado, which will take about 60 days.

Moody says he didn't know how much the asphalt reduction was costing the company.

More News>>