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A fire on Monday shut Alon USA Energy's 67,000 barrel per day refinery in Big Spring, Texas, and officials said they were expecting to partially restart the plant in about two months.

The outage, as well as seasonal refinery maintenance, helped send U.S. RBOB gasoline and heating oil futures to record highs as well.

Crude prices began to rally last week when Venezuela cut exports to Exxon Mobil after the U.S. company won court rulings to freeze $12 billion in the OPEC nation's assets as part of an arbitration battle.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Sunday the state could sue Exxon for unpaid oil taxes and repeated threats to cut oil sales to the United States.

A move by LUKOIL to cut supplies to German refineries over a pricing dispute also put markets on edge.

(Additional by Gene Ramos in New York; Ikuko Kao in London; Chua Baizhen in Singapore; Editing by Marguerita Choy)