Detroit Free Press

Marathon would spend $2 million to install stations

Marathon Petroleum Co. expects to spend $2 million to install air quality monitoring stations that would warn residents near its southwest Detroit refinery of environmental problems.

The monitors are part of Marathon’s three-year, $1-billion plan to increase refinery production in Detroit by 15%….

“We’re spending more than $300 million for pollution controls at the Detroit refinery,” said James Wilkins, manager of the Refining Environmental & Safety division.

The Marathon expansion holds the promise of 800 construction jobs starting early next year through 2010. The project also could help stabilize fuel prices for Michigan motorists by adding about 630,000 gallons of gas a day to the market.

Marathon’s plan for growth calls for the use of so-called heavy crude oil that comes from Canada’s tar sands, primarily in northern Alberta. Unlike the light-sweet crude from Saudi Arabia and other places, heavy crude has a higher sulfur content [emphasis by folc.ca] and is more difficult to process cleanly…. ([1] Full Story)
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Note by folc.ca: The U.S. presently does not permit storing of sulphur in blocks. That means that the waste-sulphur produced at Marathon’s Michigan refinery will most likely result in reduced U.S. import volumes of Canadian waste-sulphur. Not only that, but some of the waste-sulphur produced by Marathon will result in competition for sales of Canadian waste-sulphur in a glutted world market.