Feb 10, 2012. HOUSTON.

Union workers at the Marathon Petroleum Corp. (MPC) refinery in Catlettsburg, Ky., have rejected the tentative contract agreement that the United Steelworkers and refining industry reached Jan. 31, a source close to the situation said Friday.

No word was given whether the rejection would lead to a strike at the 212,000 barrel-a-day plant. A USW national spokeswoman did not have information immediately available on the Catlettsburg situation.

Marathon Petroleum spokesman Shane Pochard declined to discuss labor negotiations or the refinery's operations. The tentative 3-year labor contract agreement was reached just hours before deadline, averting a general strike. Details have not been released on the agreement, which would cover workers at 69 refineries with a combined capacity of more than a million barrels-a-day.

Local unions at Exxon Mobil Corp. (COM), Valero Energy Corp. (VLO), BP PLC (BP, BP.LN), Chevron Corp. (CVX), ConocoPhillips (COP), Tesoro Corp. (TSO) and others must ratify the tentative agreement before it goes into affect. Shell Oil, the U.S. arm of Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSA.LN, RDSA, RDSB.LN, RDSB), was the lead negotiator for the refining industry.

By Dow Jones Newswires