CORRECTED-Marathon to keep growing diesel capacity -CEO

(In April 7 story, corrects estimated cost of Garyville refinery expansion to $3.2 billion in sixth paragraph, instead of $3.4 billion. Corrects fourth paragraph to show the company plans to more than double coking capacity to 138,000 barrels per day in 2011 (not 2001) from 66,000 bpd in 2008.)

NEW ORLEANS, April 7 (Reuters) - Marathon Oil Corp. (MRO.N: Quote, Profile, Research), a U.S. oil producer and refiner, will continue to grow its diesel production capacity over the next few years, its chief executive said on Monday.

"In recent years we have been growing our diesel capacity at a higher rate than that of our peers and we will continue to through 2011," Clarence Cazalot, Jr., president and CEO, said in a presentation at the April 6-10 Howard Weil Energy Conference in New Orleans.

Distillate production growth as a percentage of crude oil throughput stood at 3.7 percent for Marathon versus an industry average of 1.9 percent from 2003 to 2007, Cazalot said.

He also said that the company was set to more than double its coking capacity to 138,000 barrels per day in 2011 from 66,000 bpd in 2008 through addition of coking units.

"The coking capacity leads to lower feedstock costs," Cazalot added in his presentation to analysts.

This will be achieved partly through a $3.2 billion expansion of its Garyville, Louisiana oil refinery, which he said was about 38 percent complete.

The project is "progressing on time and budget," he added in his presentation.

Another project was the $1.9 billion expansion of Marathon's Detroit, Michigan refinery, which is due to be completed in 2010 and will boost the refinery's heavy oil processing capacity 80,000 barrels per day (bpd) and its total crude refining capacity by about 15 percent to 115,000 bpd and includes a 28,000 bpd delayed coker. That project is linked to Marathon's recently acquired Canadian producer Western Oil Sands. (Reporting by Haitham Haddadin; Editing by David Gregorio)