Marathon Petroleum suffers power outage at Louisiana refinery

• Marathon Petroleum (NYSE:MPC) says a brief electricity shutdown disrupted operations at its Garyville, La., refinery, one of the U.S.’s largest with a 522K bbl/day refining capacity.
• Analysts say news of the power outage may cause a brief spike in spot gasoline prices but it is unlikely to have any effect on prices in the futures markets.
• However, Oppenheimer's Fadel Gheit says the timing of the outage may exaggerate any upward moves in spot prices, given the beginning of Memorial Day weekend and the summer driving season.