Key facts
- Marathon Petroleum is nearing a sale of several refineries to CVR Energy, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed sources.
- The sale is expected to be worth $4 billion, according to the report.
- CVR Energy is 71% owned by Carl Icahn and is the seventh-largest publicly traded U.S. refiner, per the report.
- CVR Energy has a market value of around $6 billion, compared with $125 billion for Marathon, the report said.
- U.S. Gulf Coast refining margins hit an all-time high of $72 per barrel in September, the report said.
Marathon Petroleum is nearing a deal to sell several refineries to CVR Energy in a transaction expected to be worth $4 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed sources. The deal could be announced later today, the report said.
CVR Energy, which is 71% owned by Carl Icahn, is the seventh-largest publicly traded refiner in the United States, according to the WSJ report. Its market value is around $6 billion, compared with $125 billion for Marathon.
The report said refining margins for U.S. Gulf Coast operators hit an all-time high of $72 per barrel in September, driven by refinery disruption in the Middle East and Russia and the resulting fuel shortages. Margins are off that peak since then but still significantly higher than a year earlier.
The Wall Street Journal also recalled that Valero had just bought an idled refinery in Houston and plans to restart it at a daily rate of 165,000 barrels, while Exxon and Chevron are directing investments into their refining businesses and ramping up production at existing refineries. Europe has closed about a quarter of its refineries over the past two decades, the report said.