Marathon Ashland St. Paul Minn. cat cracker down Thursday May 3, 6:47 PM EDT

(new lead, specific units, recasts throughout)

NEW YORK, May 3 (Reuters) - Marathon Ashland Petroleum's (MRO) (ASH) shut the catalytic cracker at its 69,000 barrel per day (bpd) St. Paul, Minnesota, refinery after a power failure, industry sources said Thursday.

The unit, which has a catalytic cracking capacity of about 28,000 bpd, went down Sunday after a power failure or surge, sources said, and encountered problems restarting on Thursday.

Sources said the unit would restart over the weekend.

The company declined to comment.

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-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), May 05, 2001