Marathon Petroleum Corporation (MPC)

Marathon Petroleum, which runs the largest refining system in the United States, earned $5.1 billion in the second quarter of 2026, against $1.2 billion a year earlier 1. Its refining margin, what it keeps on each barrel between the crude it buys and the fuel it sells, rose to $36.33 from $17.58 1. The company said higher crack spreads, the gap between fuel and crude prices, in all regions drove the result 1.

Reuters reported that prolonged disruptions to crude supplies through the Strait of Hormuz doubled refining margins, as the Iran war upset global energy shipping 10. The company's quarterly report ties the higher fuel prices to crude supply disruptions from regional conflicts, particularly in the Middle East 2. Rivals Valero Energy and HF Sinclair also posted their highest quarterly profits since 2022, Reuters reported 10.

The company returned $2.8 billion to shareholders in the quarter, and its board added a further $5.0 billion share repurchase authorization in May 12. In its newest filing, BlackRock reported holding 7.9 percent of the common stock 13. The next marker is the third-quarter results call the company has scheduled for 3 November 2026 11.

Marathon Petroleum was incorporated in Delaware in 2009 and became a company of its own on 30 June 2011, when Marathon Oil spun off its refining, marketing and transportation business 3. In a spinoff the parent hands the unit's shares to its own shareholders, so the refiner began with Marathon Oil's owners 3. The company counts nearly 140 years of history in the energy business 3.

The turning point came on 1 October 2018, when it bought Andeavor, a refiner and marketer in the Western and Mid-Continent states, for about 239.8 million shares and $3.5 billion in cash 3. The annual report says the deal substantially widened its geography and the scale of its assets 3. Revenue rose from $86.1 billion in 2018 to $111.1 billion in 2019, the first full year with Andeavor 5.

Then the pandemic emptied the roads: in 2020 revenue fell to $69.8 billion as fuel sales volumes dropped 14 percent and fuel prices 31 percent, largely from reduced travel 5. The company wrote down $8.43 billion of goodwill and plants whose worth had fallen and lost $9.8 billion 5. It idled its Martinez and Gallup refineries and cut its workforce 5.

On 14 May 2021 it sold Speedway, its own chain of fuel and convenience stores, to 7-Eleven for $21.38 billion in cash, booking a pretax gain of $11.68 billion 3. The sale ended its company-run retail business and left it supplying stations run by others 3. Revenue recovered to $120.0 billion in 2021 as average fuel prices rose 65 percent with the economy 4.

In 2022, the year Russia's invasion of Ukraine upset global fuel supplies, revenue reached $177.5 billion and profit $14.5 billion, as average fuel prices rose another 47 percent 410. The idled Martinez refinery became a renewable diesel plant shared with Neste, and forming that venture brought a gain of $549 million 4. The company spent much of the cash on its own shares: from 2012 through 2025 it bought back $55.67 billion of stock 3.

Margins then cooled: the refining margin fell from $23.00 a barrel in 2023 to $16.01 in 2024, mostly on lower crack spreads, and profit fell to $3.4 billion from $9.7 billion 3. In 2025 revenue slipped to $132.7 billion on fuel prices 8 percent lower, yet profit rose to $4.0 billion 3. Gains from midstream deals and the sale of its ethanol stake helped 3.

Those deals were made inside MPLX, the pipeline partnership the company controls 3. In 2025 MPLX bought Northwind Midstream for $2.4 billion and the rest of BANGL for $703 million, and sold its Rockies assets for $980 million 3. The company itself sold its 49.9 percent ethanol stake for $427 million, while Northwind added sour gas treating in New Mexico 3.

Refining and Marketing: the fuel business

This is the core: the company turns crude oil into gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, asphalt and propane, and sells it to wholesalers, branded stations and export buyers 3. Its refineries can process 2,986 thousand barrels of crude a day and ran 2,787 thousand a day in 2025 3. The segment brought in $124.3 billion of revenue from outside customers in 2025 3.

In 2025 its refineries made 1,499 thousand barrels a day of gasoline and 1,093 thousand of distillates, the family that includes diesel and jet fuel 3. They exported 401 thousand barrels a day, mainly from Garyville, Galveston Bay, Anacortes and Los Angeles 3. In the second quarter of 2026 the segment ran at 94 percent of its crude capacity 1.

The company does not own the stations that carry its name: at the end of 2025 independent owners ran 7,882 Marathon-branded outlets in 40 states, Washington DC and Mexico 3. It also supplies 1,162 dealer stations, mostly in Southern California under the ARCO brand 3.

The refineries

Galveston Bay in Texas City, Texas, is the largest at 631 thousand barrels a day, followed by Garyville, Louisiana, at 617 thousand 3. Los Angeles, at 365 thousand, is the largest refinery on the West Coast and a major maker of California's cleaner-burning fuels 3. Detroit is the only refinery operating in Michigan 3.

The others sit in Kentucky, Illinois, Texas, Minnesota, Ohio, North Dakota, Utah, Washington and Alaska, linked by pipelines, terminals and barges so half-made products can move between plants 3. A power plant beside Galveston Bay can generate 1,055 megawatts, and about 49 percent of what it made in 2025 was used at the refinery 3.

Midstream: MPLX and the pipelines

MPLX, a partnership formed in 2012, gathers and processes natural gas, moves crude and fuel by pipeline, barge and truck, and fractionates gas liquids, splitting them into propane, butane and the like 3. The company owns its general partner and about 64 percent of its units 2. MPLX's outside revenue was $5.6 billion in 2025 3.

The segment earned $1.8 billion of adjusted EBITDA, profit before interest, tax and depreciation, in the second quarter of 2026, up from $1.6 billion on higher rates and volumes 1. MPLX paid the company $2.56 billion in distributions in 2025 3.

Renewable Diesel

Renewable diesel is a diesel made from soybean oil, corn oil, fats and greases that engines burn like the oil-based fuel 3. The Dickinson, North Dakota plant can make 184 million gallons a year, and the Martinez plant in California, shared equally with Neste, 730 million 3. The segment's outside revenue was $2.8 billion in 2025 3.

The business lost money on the company's measure in 2025, but earned $258 million of adjusted EBITDA in the second quarter of 2026 against a loss of $19 million 31. The company credited stronger margins, more volume and more valuable regulatory credits 1.

The people

Maryann Mannen has been chief executive since August 2024 and chairman since January 2026; she was finance chief from 2021 and came from TechnipFMC 3. Maria Khoury, formerly of Danaher, became finance chief on 19 January 2026 3. The company employed about 18,500 people at the end of 2025, some 3,800 of them under union contracts 3.

Director Abdulaziz Alkhayyal, on the board since 2016, died in June 2026 9. Rick Hessling, the chief commercial officer, told investors in August that demand for gasoline, diesel and jet fuel stayed resilient at home and abroad, Reuters reported 10.

Rivals

The company competes for crude and for fuel buyers with other refiners, integrated oil companies, independent marketers and big retailers 3. Reuters names Valero Energy and HF Sinclair among the refiners reporting the same surge in profit 10. Electric cars and renewable fuels are rivals too, which the annual report counts as a risk to fuel demand 3.

Problems on file

Federal authorities are pursuing Clean Water Act claims over crude releases from MPLX pipelines in Illinois and Indiana, and the EPA has alleged benzene waste violations at Garyville and St. Paul Park 3. The company expects no penalty to be material 3.

Delaware's climate lawsuit, filed in 2020 against several oil companies including this one, claims they misled the public about climate change 2. An MPLX unit is in court with federal agencies over a pipeline crossing tribal land in North Dakota 2. MPLX holds 9.19 percent of the venture that owns the Dakota Access Pipeline, whose permit the Army Corps decided on in May 2026 2.

The umbrella, in words

The brands are Marathon, on stations run by independent owners, and ARCO, on dealer stations mostly in Southern California; the annual report calls both trademarks material 3. The subsidiaries list names, among many others, Tesoro Refining & Marketing, which runs the Los Angeles, Anacortes, Mandan and Salt Lake City plants, and Western Refining, which runs El Paso 6.

It also lists Marathon Pipe Line, the MarkWest gas companies inside MPLX, Watson Cogeneration and Virent, a maker of fuels and chemicals from plant matter 612. The company owns about 64 percent of MPLX's units plus its general partner 2. It owns half of Martinez Renewables with Neste, 49.9 percent of LF Bioenergy, a dairy-farm gas producer, and 25 percent of a soybean crushing venture run by ADM 3.

No one controls the company: it has one class of common stock, and the largest holders are fund managers 1314. BlackRock reported 7.9 percent and Vanguard Capital Management 7.52 percent in their newest filings 1314. Directors serve staggered three-year terms, and changing that needs 80 percent of all outstanding shares 7.

The company has scheduled its third-quarter results for 3 November 2026 11. In August it guided to about 3,005 thousand barrels a day through its refineries in the quarter, $290 million of planned maintenance and operating costs of $5.60 a barrel 1.

Outside MPLX, the company plans $1.5 billion of capital spending in 2026, about 65 percent on projects meant to raise earnings 1. At Galveston Bay it is building a 90 thousand barrel a day unit to make more ultra-low sulfur diesel, due by the end of next year in the company's table 1. At Garyville two projects due by then would add 30 thousand barrels a day of crude and 10 thousand of export gasoline 1.

MPLX raised its 2026 growth spending plan by $500 million to $2.9 billion, mostly to speed up gas liquids plants on the Gulf Coast 1. The company expects that work to support 12.5 percent yearly growth in MPLX distributions in 2026 and 2027 1.

MPLX began commissioning its Blackcomb gas pipeline in July 2026 and lists two fractionation plants near Galveston Bay for 2028 and 2029 1. It also holds half of a propane and butane export terminal planned in Texas City for 2028, designed for 400 thousand barrels a day 1.

The company borrowed about 22 million barrels of crude from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve during 2026 and has agreed to return about 27 million barrels from April 2027 through July 2029 2. The board has $6.13 billion left under its share repurchase authorizations, with no expiry date 2.

The quarterly report says new litigation may follow the Army Corps' environmental review of the Dakota Access Pipeline 2. In Los Angeles, the last 20 percent of required nitrogen oxide cuts must be finished by 2032 3.

Past

Marathon Petroleum's revenue grew from 86 billion dollars in fiscal 2018 to 133 billion dollars in fiscal 2025, up 6.4% a year over the eight filed years, and rose in three of seven years between them. The deepest fall was 37% from fiscal 2019 to fiscal 2020. Net income was positive in seven of eight of those years. Over the three fiscal years to 2025, the diluted share count shrank about 16.0% a year, and dividends and buybacks returned about 90% of its operating cash flow over those three years. Officers and directors filed 17 sales and 0 purchases of their own stock on the open market in the year to September 2026. 1

The company's filings since 2017 show no warning events: no bankruptcy or receivership notice, no debt default notice, no exchange listing notice, no restatement warning, no auditor change, no material cyber incident and no late-report notice. 1

Present

In its latest annual figures on file, for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025, Marathon Petroleum reported revenue of 133 billion dollars and a profit of 4.0 billion dollars. 2

The company earned about 23 cents of profit for every dollar of shareholders' money, and its products earned about 16 cents per dollar of everything the company owns. It owed about 79 cents per dollar of assets, and its share count shrank 10.3% over the year. Revenue of 133 billion dollars in fiscal 2025 ranks in the top 17% by size among 17 graded names in its industry family; a net margin of 3% ranks in the top 38%; revenue growth of -9.2% a year over the last three filed years ranks in the bottom 38%. 1

Maryann T. The 19 officers and directors filing in the last fifteen months have been on the record a median of 4.2 years. Eleven officer or director changes were reported on Form 8-K since October 21, 2023, against the 19 people in charge now. 1

Future

Revenue grew -9.2% a year over the last three filed years against 6.4% over all eight, slowing. The newest year grew -4.4%; capital spending grew 12.9% a year. Revenue of 133 billion dollars in fiscal 2025 came in 8% above the 123 billion dollars its prior three years' pace pointed to. Net income of 4.0 billion dollars fell against a prior three-year average of 9.2 billion dollars. 1

How the company operates

Marathon Petroleum reports three lines of business in fiscal 2025: Refining and Marketing at 94% of revenue, Midstream at 4%, and Renewable Diesel at 2%. Refining and Marketing generated 124 billion dollars, Midstream 5.6 billion dollars, and Renewable Diesel 2.8 billion dollars; two of three lines grew against the year before. 21

The company is based in Findlay, Ohio. 2

New moves

On April 13, 2026, the company filed a current report stating it had signed a major agreement, ended a major agreement, released results, and took on new debt or an obligation. 3