Marathon closes on sale of Midwest refinery, downstream assets

摘要

Marathon's 74,000-b/d St. Paul Park refinery, associated terminals and 166 c-stores have now officially been sold to Northern Tier Energy, an entity backed by two private equity groups that will operate the refinery and downstream assets as a stand-alone company.rnTop executives for what is now known as Northern Tier Energy began negotiating with Marathon in February. A finished deal was originally targeted for late October. The company is to be headed by refining veteran Mario Rodriguez and ex-Premcor exec Hank Kuchta. Sources in the mergers and acquisitions market say the company could look to acquire additional refining assets in niche markets in coming months, and there is even the hint of a possible letter-of-intent before year's end for another Midwestern plant.