On the evening of Monday, March 23, an explosion rocked Valero's Port Arthur refinery in southeast Texas. Thick black smoke filled the sky, residents on the west side of the city were ordered to shelter in place, and highways were shut down for hours. The fire was extinguished by early Tuesday morning. No injuries were reported.
The refinery processes roughly 380,000 barrels of crude oil per day and employs around 770 people. Preliminary reports suggest the blast originated from a diesel hydrotreater unit, though a full investigation is still underway. Operations at the refinery have since resumed.
But here is the part of the story that matters to the UCO industry.
Sitting right next to that refinery is the Diamond Green Diesel facility, a 50/50 joint venture between Valero and Darling Ingredients. That plant produces approximately 470 million gallons of renewable diesel per year, with the capability to convert up to half of that capacity into sustainable aviation fuel. It is one of the largest renewable diesel and SAF operations in the world.
The feedstock going into that facility? Used cooking oil, inedible animal fats, and inedible corn oil. Darling Ingredients collects roughly 10 percent of the world's inedible animal by-products and is the largest collector of used cooking oil in North America. That supply chain runs directly through the Port Arthur site.
Any disruption at this facility, even temporary, has the potential to ripple through feedstock markets. When a plant of this scale goes offline or slows production, it affects procurement schedules, pricing signals, and demand timing for UCO collectors and brokers up and down the supply chain.
The good news is that no injuries occurred and operations have resumed. But for anyone collecting or trading used cooking oil, this is a reminder of how tightly connected the UCO supply chain is to refinery-scale infrastructure on the Gulf Coast. When something happens at a site like Port Arthur, the feedstock side of the business feels it.
