Lovell Wyo-Ben plant slated to close

The precipitous downturn in the U.S. oil and gas industry has led to the planned closure of one of the Lovell area’s three bentonite plants.Wyo-Ben, Inc., on Tuesday announced “a revision to plant operations in Wyoming designed to enhance production capability at our plants located in Greybull and Thermopolis” while at the same time proceeding with a plan to “gradually step down production at our Sage Creek plant in Lovell and eventually place it into a hibernation state.”Tuesday’s announcement said the Sage Creek plant’s fortunes could change if markets improve and the company is working to relocate employees, stating, “This is not planned to be a permanent closure. Regrettably, we have experienced some layoffs. However, as we implement our phased shutdown of Sage Creek, we will be working diligently to provide opportunities at one of our other facilities.”[caption id="attachment_10946" align="alignright" width="300"] Wyo-Ben, Inc. announced on Tuesday that a phased shutdown of its Sage Creek plant, located just outside of Lovell, will take place over the next several months due to the downturn in the oil and gas industry.
Patti Carpenter photo[/caption]Wyo-Ben will continue to service customers during the “transition period” and the company expects modifications at the Greybull and Thermopolis plants to “give us greater capability to better serve our customers,” the announcement stated.In an interview Wednesday morning, Wyo-Ben, Inc. President and CEO David Brown said there is always the possibility that the decision to cease operations at the Sage Creek plant, located west of Lovell, could be reversed if market conditions improve, noting, “It is reversible,” but he added, “This is a fairly decisive step to consolidate. There are no signals to us that drilling activities will increase any time soon.”The oil and gas market is very difficult to predict with any certainty, Brown said.“Something could happen tomorrow and it could all change,” he said, calling the market forces “very dynamic and fluid” and adding, “You can change plans, but this is the course of action.”Brown noted that, according to the Baker-Hughes weekly count of U.S. crude oil and natural gas rigs, the number of crude oil rigs has fallen from around 1,600 in November of 2014 to around 450 in December of 2015.The steep decline in the number of drilling rigs is a significant factor in the state of the bentonite industry, in spite of steps by the industry to diversify, Brown said, noting, “This is a huge decline.”Tuesday’s announcement stated that Wyoming Bentonite clay based products are used globally in not only oil, gas and water well drilling but also in applications such as environmental construction and remediation, hazardous waste treatment, cat litter, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, among various industrial and consumer products.Wyo-Ben is headquartered in Billings and mines from its reserves in the Big Horn Basin. Brown said the company has also branched outside the bentonite industry, forming a division called Thunder Products, which manufactures mud mixing and recycling equipment for the horizontal directional drilling market near Fort Worth, Texas.Asked if the Sage Creek plant, which was constructed in 1961, could reopen and undergo modifications of its own like the Stucco plant in Greybull and the Lucerne plant north of Thermopolis, Brown said it’s “very possible,” adding, “It’s not precluded.”Brown did not have numbers at his fingertips on how many employees would be affectedby the shutdown of the Sage Creek plant.

By David Peck