Refiner Marathon Petroleum Corp said it would purchase oil and natural gas producer Hess Corp's retail business for $2.87 billion to expand its network of gas stations and convenience stores along the U.S. East Coast.Marathon Petroleum sells gasoline, food and drinks mainly through its Speedway convenience stores in the Midwest. It also sells Marathon brand gasoline through nearly 5,200 independently owned retail outlets in 18 states.Speedway, the Marathon unit making the acquisition, owns and operates about 1,480 convenience stores in nine states.Hess, which operates 1,256 stores in 16 states, will use the sale proceeds for additional share buybacks and has increased its existing repurchase program to $6.5 billion from $4 billion.
Marathon Petroleum Corporation (Marathon Petroleum) is engaged in refining, transporting and marketing petroleum products in the United States. Shares of MPC fell by 1.06% or $-0.94/share to $87.69. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $61.32 and as high as $97.70. On average, 3300340 shares of MPC exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 2824616.
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