Marathon Oil Corp. said today that 16 terminals located in five Midwestern states will convert to ethanol-blended fuel by May 1. Unblended gas products will no longer be offered at any of the terminals.

Seven of the terminals are in the Michigan cities of Jackson, Lansing, Flint, Bay City, Niles (South), Detroit (Refinery Rack) and Romulus, five are in Ohio cities, including Cincinnati, Lebanon, Oregon, Lima, Brecksville, and two are in Indiana–one in Indianapolis and one in Muncie. The remaining terminals are in Louisville, Kentucky (Algonquin) and Milwaukee, Wisconsin (Granville).

Mary Ellen Peters, Marathon’s senior vice president of marketing, said the terminals will convert to 100% ethanol blended gas to help meet the “changing needs of our customers.”

“It also supports our renewable fuels goals, which were recently increased by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 to 9 billion gallons of renewable fuel in 2008 and 36 billion gallons by 2022,” Peters said.

Marathon expanded its ethanol blend to 625 million gallons in 2007, largely in response to 2007 legislation and the increase in customer demand for the blended fuel.

Marathon has equity in two ethanol facilities in Indiana and Ohio, which total more than 220 million gallons of annual gross ethanol capacity. The company has 6,000 locations in 18 states, about 75% of which are Marathon-brand locations.