Marathon Petroleum

In 1887, several oil companies in Lima, Ohio, merged to form The Ohio Oil Company. In 1889, Standard OilStandard OilStandard Oil was an oil company founded in 1870 in Cleveland, Ohio, by John D. Rockefeller and others. Through mergers and expansion, and organizational forms including the trust of 1882 and the New Jersey holding company of 1899, it at one time controlled most of the refining capacity in the United States. In 1911 the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the dissolution of its holding company under the Sherman Anti-trust Act, and the companies split off from it later evolved into oil companies including ExxonMobil and Chevron.Open the full entry bought the company and moved its headquarters to Findlay, Ohio. After Standard Oil was broken up in 1911, Ohio Oil again became independent.⁠[1]

In 1930, Ohio Oil acquired Transcontinental Oil and began using the Marathon brand name. In 1962, the company changed its name to Marathon Oil Company.⁠[1]

In 1982, Marathon fended off a hostile takeover by Mobil and sold the company to U.S. Steel.⁠[2]

In 1998, Marathon and Ashland Inc. formed the Marathon Ashland Petroleum joint venture.⁠[2]

On June 30, 2005, Marathon completed its acquisition of Ashland’s 38 percent interest in Marathon Ashland Petroleum LLC, in a transaction valued at about $3.73 billion. The company became wholly owned by Marathon and was renamed Marathon Petroleum Company LLC effective September 1, 2005.⁠[3]

On June 23, 2011, Standard & Poor’s announced that Marathon Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: MPCwi) would replace RadioShack Corp. in the S&P 500S&P 500The S&P 500 is a U.S. large-cap equity index compiled by S&P Dow Jones Indices. It includes 500 leading companies, covers about 80% of available market capitalization and is described by S&P DJI as “widely regarded as the best single gauge of large-cap U.S. equities.”Open the full entry effective after the close of trading on June 30, in the Oil & Gas Refining & Marketing sub-industry.⁠[4]

On June 30, 2011, Marathon Oil distributed Marathon Petroleum Corporation common stock to its stockholders, one share for every two Marathon Oil shares. The new company’s stock began regular-way trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol MPC on July 1, and Gary R. Heminger became president and chief executive officer effective June 30.⁠[5]

In February 2013, Marathon Petroleum completed its purchase of BPBPBP (BP p.l.c.) is a British energy company headquartered in London; it began as the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, founded in 1909, merged with Amoco in 1998 and experienced the Deepwater Horizon accident in 2010. As of October 2026 its chief executive is Meg O’Neill.Open the full entry’s refinery in Texas City, Texas, with capacity of 451,000 barrels per calendar day, and renamed it Galveston Bay Refinery. The deal also included a 1,040-megawatt cogeneration facility, four light product terminals in the Southeast and retail marketing contract assignments for 1,200 branded sites.⁠[6]

On May 19, 2015, the Environmental Protection Agency announced a Clean Air Act settlement with Marathon Petroleum covering 10 of its facilities. Marathon agreed to pay a $2.9 million civil penalty and estimated it would spend about $3 million to retire 5.5 billion sulfur credits and to upgrade 14 fuel storage tanks at distribution terminals to reduce volatile organic compound emissions.⁠[7]

On December 4, 2015, MPLX announced the completion of its merger with MarkWest, which became a wholly owned subsidiary, and MarkWest’s common units stopped trading on the New York Stock Exchange. MPLX is a fee-based master limited partnership formed by Marathon Petroleum in 2012.⁠[8]

On October 1, 2018, Marathon Petroleum closed its acquisition of all outstanding Andeavor shares. The combined company had over 3 million barrels per day of crude oil capacity across 16 refineries and about 7,800 branded retail locations. Chairman and CEO Heminger said: “MPC is now the leading refining, midstream, and marketing company in the U.S.”⁠[9]

In October 2019, after a 10-month strategic review, Marathon Petroleum confirmed plans to make Speedway an independent company by year-end 2020. Chairman and CEO Heminger was to retire after the first quarter of 2020, and Michael J. Hennigan, president of MPLX GP LLC, was to become its CEO on November 1.⁠[10]

On March 18, 2020, Marathon Petroleum appointed Hennigan president and chief executive officer, effective immediately, and Heminger was to retire in April after 45 years with the company. Hennigan had earlier been president and CEO of Sunoco Logistics Partners LP.⁠[11]

In August 2020, Marathon Petroleum agreed to sell Speedway for $21 billion to Seven & i Holdings, owner of 7-Eleven, replacing a planned spin-off that was part of a restructuring pushed by activist investor Elliott Management. The deal was expected to close in the first quarter of 2021, and Marathon estimated after-tax proceeds of $16.5 billion, which it said it would use to pay existing debt.⁠[12]

The Federal Trade Commission said the deal raised “significant competitive concerns” in hundreds of local retail gasoline and diesel markets, and 7-Eleven settled at the end of April 2021 by divesting 293 fuel outlets. On May 14, 2021, 7-Eleven announced it had completed the acquisition of Speedway, which had more than 3,800 convenience stores in 36 states.⁠[13]

On September 21, 2022, Neste closed a transaction giving it a 50% interest in Martinez Renewables, the joint venture converting Marathon Petroleum’s refinery in Martinez, California, with output shared equally. Production was expected to start in early 2023, with capacity of 2.1 million tons of renewable fuels a year by the end of 2023.⁠[14]

On the evening of August 24, 2023, naphtha began leaking from two storage tanks at Marathon Petroleum’s refinery in Garyville, Louisiana, and later caught fire. St. John the Baptist Parish announced an evacuation within two miles of the refinery on the morning of August 25, about 15 hours after the leak began. EPA air monitoring detections were below action levels.⁠[15]

On May 13, 2024, Marathon Petroleum announced that President Maryann Mannen would succeed Hennigan as chief executive officer and join the board on August 1, 2024, and that Hennigan would become executive chairman. Mannen had been executive vice president and chief financial officer from January 2021 and president since January 2024.⁠[16]

At the end of 2025, Marathon Petroleum operated 13 refineries in the U.S. Gulf Coast, Mid-Continent and West Coast regions with about 3.0 million barrels per day of crude oil refining capacity and employed about 18,500 people. It owned MPLX’s general partner and about 64 percent of its common units.⁠[17]

Mannen became Chairman of the Board effective January 2026.⁠[17]

On February 3, 2026, Marathon Petroleum announced 2025 net income attributable to MPC of $4.0 billion, or $13.22 per diluted share, compared with $3.4 billion in 2024. Total revenues and other income were $135.222 billion in 2025 and $140.412 billion in 2024. Mannen said: “In 2025, strong refining operational performance and commercial execution drove cash flow generation.”⁠[18]

On August 4, 2026, Marathon Petroleum announced second-quarter net income attributable to the company of $5.1 billion, or $17.73 per diluted share, compared with $1.2 billion a year earlier. Total revenues and other income were $52.337 billion, compared with $34.101 billion, and refining capacity utilization was 94%.⁠[19]