Michigan’s only refinery is injecting some new economic vitality into depressed Detroit with a $1.9-billion upgrade that will allow it to process an additional 80,000 barrels per day of heavy crude from Canada’s oil-sands fields.
The 78-year-old Detroit Refinery, owned by Findlay, Ohio-based Mar-athon Petroleum Co. LLC, currently processes 102,00 barrels per day of crude oil “into products such as gasoline, kerosene, asphalt and diesel fuel,” says Marathon spokesperson Christiane Fox. The new work includes building a new coker unit, retrofitting emission-control technology and laying 29 miles of 24-in.-dia. pipeline. The coker unit will allow the refinery to convert the heavy crude into higher-quality products, she adds.