NORTH SALT LAKE — The Flying J Refinery here will now be purchasing its oil on a day-to-day basis, thanks in large part to Flying J’s bankruptcy filing last week.

“We are still working things out to continue to receive our crude supply, said Joel Elstein, manager of the refinery. “It’s been kind of a day-to-day thing in the last week or so.”

The refinery is still operating normally, and typically purchased their crude oil on a monthly basis.

However, since the company is now under bankruptcy protection, Big West has been looking for other ways to purchase their crude oil in order to maintain their daily operations.

Their main reason for the filing, according to a statement made on their website, was a “cash crisis brought on by the decline in gas prices.”

“We seem to be buying crude at a similar price as before,” said Elstein. “”We didn’t anticipate operation being curtailed by our financial situation.

“I really didn’t expect any of this to happen.”

Big West LLC is a California-based company that purchased the refinery in order to have an additional source to ship oil to.

They also purchase and ship crude to other parts of the Western U.S., including Wyoming and Colorado.

The refinery still has all of its roughly 130 employees, as they announced at the time of their filing that they will not seek any layoff of employees.

Flying J is one of the 20 largest private companies in America, with 2007 sales reaching $1.6 billion.

Transportation Alliance Bank, which works directly with the company, is said to not be affected by the bankruptcy filing as well; and that they are operating “business as usual” for now.

The company’s press release also stated that their employee’s benefits, including medical, dental life insurance, disability and other benefits will also continue without disruption.

Flying J operates three locations in Davis County, including two in North Salt Lake and another in Layton.

sgillet@davisclipper.com