Marathon Petroleum Corp is buying BP Plc's Texas City refinery, the site of a deadly industrial accident, in a $2.5 billion deal that will make it the No. 4 U.S. refiner with a bigger potential slice of lucrative exports.Marathon's share price shot to a record high early on Monday after it announced the purchase of the 451,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) refinery, the fifth largest in the country, in a deal analysts said could give the independent refiner more leverage in the fuel export market."This is a unique opportunity to acquire world-scale refining assets at an attractive price," Marathon Chief Executive Gary Heminger told analysts on Monday.The company will not incur any liability stemming from the 2005 explosion at the BP plant which killed 15 workers and injured 180 more. BP paid more than $3 billion to settle lawsuits, cover fines and upgrade the refinery in the years after the blast.
Marathon Petroleum Corporation (MPC) is a petroleum product refiners, transporters and marketers in the United States. Shares of MPC traded higher by 5.56% or $3.05/share to $57.92. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $30.24 and as high as $56.92. On average, 3021180 shares of MPC exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 9311863.
Source
