FINDLAY, Ohio -- Marathon Petroleum Corp. is hunting for deals, according to a Reuters report, and it wants assets that fit its strategy of refining oil and distributing the fuels produced, chief executive officer Gary Heminger said.
Marathon Petroleum, which was spun off from Marathon Oil Corp. last month (click here for previous CSP Daily News coverage), is well positioned to do a deal. The company's planned capital spending is shrinking after it completes an expansion of its Detroit refinery next year, Heminger said in an interview with the news agency.
"We have an appetite for acquisitions--probably not across the Atlantic, but an appetite for acquisitions, and definitely an appetite to continue to grow our Speedway business," he said.
Marathon Petroleum has 1,350 Speedway locations in seven states.
"Our business model is that we do not want to go in and just be a merchant refiner and pick a refinery in some state .... What we do best is to have that entire supply chain," he said. "If we could find some transportation assets and some retail assets and make the whole system work, we would possibly have some interest."
The company also would like to add more retail assets in the U.S. Southeast, Heminger said.
Marathon Petroleum's focus on remaining active across its entire supply chain applies to its pipeline and other midstream assets, Heminger said.
He does not plan to move those assets into a master limited partnership, a structure that has become popular with owners of cash-generating pipeline and other energy infrastructure assets, because they allow the companies to operate while paying almost no corporate taxes.
Marathon broke up into two companies, an independent oil and gas producer and a refiner, on June 30 in hopes that it would secure higher valuations for both parts. ConocoPhillips has followed Marathon's lead, announcing plans for its own breakup earlier this month (click here for previous coverage).
Findlay, Ohio-based Marathon Petroleum is the nation's fifth largest transportation fuels refiner and largest in the Midwest. Its six-plant refinery system has a 1.142-million barrels-per-calendar-day capacity. It owns and operates 83 light product and asphalt terminals and owns, operates, leases or has ownership interest in 9,600 miles of pipeline. It is a petroleum products marketer in the Midwest, Gulf Coast and Southeast, with a marketing network of 5,100 Marathon and 1,350 Speedway locations.
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