Marathon wants to increase crude oil capacity at Garyville refinery

Marathon Petroleum Co.'s Garyville refinery is seeking a state permit to expand its crude oil capacity by 20,000 barrels per day, as well as expanding the output of its production units, according to a permit application filed with the state Department of Environmental Quality. The improvements to the refinery, outlined in a request to the state to modify its air quality permit, are designed to increase the capacity of a hydrocracker to 110,000 barrels of oil per day from the current 90,000.

The public notice was published Saturday in St. John the Baptist Parish's legal journal.

The work would be done in two phases, one later this year and the second in 2014, according to the public notice.

A hydrocracker uses heat and catalysts to break up oil into different products.

The company also wants to increase the capacity of the refinery's ultra-low sulfur diesel production to 76,000 barrels per day from the current 58,000.

Additionally, the project would increase the capacity of the recent expansion project to 290,000 barrels of oil per day, up from the current 270,000.

Asked about the projected cost and economic impact of the project, Shane Pochard, a spokesman for the Findlay, Ohio company, said in an e-mail that he could not comment beyond the company's filing.

In 2009, a$3.9 billion project was completed to double the refinery's capacity to process 490,000 barrels of crude per day, making it the fourth largest in the country.

Documents about the proposed expansion are available at the Garyville branch of the St. John the Baptist Public Library or online at the DEQ's electronic document management system at www.deq.gov.