Marathon Oil Corp. plans to invest $2.2-billion to increase the current crude capacity at its 245,000-barrel-per-day Garyville, La., refinery by 180,000 bbl per day, to 425,000. "Marathon will essentially construct a new refinery at the existing site and leverage off the infrastructure already in place," says Gary R. Heminger, executive vice president of Marathon and president of the company’s refining, marketing and transportation operations. The initial phase of the expansion will include front-end engineering and design work. Houston-based Marathon also will begin acquiring permits and address other regulatory requirements. Construction could begin in 2007 and be completed as early as the fourth quarter of 2009.