Marathon Ashland Nears Completion of $300 Million Louisiana Refinery Upgrade

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The following is an advisory by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Inc.; Houston, Texas). Marathon Ashland Petroleum LLC (Findley, Ohio) is nearing completion of a $300 million upgrade to their Garyville refinery, located in southeastern Louisiana. The upgrade, based on a long-term crude oil supply agreement with Mexico's Pemex trading subsidiary P.M.I. Comercio International (Mexico, D.F.), will allow the refinery to process a cheaper feedstock and increase yields of lighter, more valuable products.

The upgrade consists of constructing a new 34,500 barrel per day delayed coking unit, a 220 Ton per day Sulfur Recovery Unit (SRU), modifications to the hydrotreaters and an expansion of the off-site utilities. The Garyville refinery is obligated to purchase 90,000 barrels per day heavy Maya crude from Mexico to feed the new coker, however this purchase should only displace the more costly crudes. This upgrade follows a $40 million investment to construct a propylene splitter that feeds a new polymer-grade propylene unit completed in 1999 owned by Epsilon Products, which is located at the refinery.

Located 28 miles northwest of New Orleans, the Garyville refinery, which is the last major refinery to be built in the U.S., began operations in 1976. It employs over 530 full-time employees and can process 250,000 barrels per day of heavy sour crude oil. Looking ahead into the future, we are currently tracking over $200 million of capital spending to increase the processing capacity of the refinery and to meet strict environmental mandates, states Chris Paschall, Industrialinfo.com's Synfuels and Petroleum Refining Group Manager.

MAP LLC, was formed in 1998 by combining the downstream operations of Marathon Oil Company, a 62 percent owner and Ashland Inc., a 38 percent owner. Currently MAP LLC owns and operates seven refineries in the U.S, which process 953,000 barrels per day of crude oil.