Nov. 27, 2006: Oil Companies Plan to Modify and Expand U.S. Refineries
BP announced a $3 billion plan to expand its Whiting, Ind., plant to increase its production capacity by 15 percent, which equals about 1.7 million additional gallons of gasoline and diesel fuel each day. However, the main focus of the Indiana project is to allow the refinery to process heavy crude oil from Canadian oil sands.
Marathon Oil Co. is also considering modifying its refineries in Detroit and Catlettsburg, Ky., to handle Canadian heavy crude oil. Marathon has also approved a $3.2 billion project to increase the capacity of its Garyville, La., refinery by nearly three quarters, to a total capacity of 425,000 barrels of oil per day.