Marathon plans mid-Feb restart for Galveston Bay FCCU -sources

(Adds Marathon no comment, background)

HOUSTON, Jan 29 (Reuters) - Marathon Petroleum Corp plans to restart a 60,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) gasoline-producing fluidic catalytic cracking unit at its 451,000 bpd Galveston Bay Refinery in Texas City, Texas, in mid-February, said sources familiar with the refinery's plans.

The company has tentatively scheduled the restart of the unit called FCCU 1 for Feb. 14, the sources said. FCCU 1 is the smaller of two cat crackers at the refinery and was shut for repairs on Jan. 13 following a malfunction.

A Marathon spokeswoman declined to discuss operations at the refinery on Thursday.

The 120,000 bpd FCCU 3 at the refinery has continued in production while FCCU 1 has been shut. FCCU 2 was permanently closed down by previous owner BP Plc.

Marathon has been considering permanently idling FCCU 1 in 2016 rather than make costly investments to upgrade the unit's pollution control system to meet the terms of an agreement signed with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

(Reporting by Erwin Seba)