Energy Transfer Partners and Sunoco, Inc.have completed a merger that will make the Philadelphia company into a subsidiary of the Texas corporation. Shares of Sunoco are no longer traded following the cash and stock deal.
Sunoco was hit hard by a squeeze in refinery profit margins and over the years had exited oil production and other businesses in a rapidly consolidating industry. It retained a network of convenience stores and a logistics operation that stored and transferred petroleum products. Those assets proved to be attractive to ETF.
Since the announcement of the merger, Sunoco became a partner in its flagship Philadelphia refinery. The Marcus Hook refinery, which is mostly closed, will be converted to natural gas processing as supplies grow from the Marcellus shale gas. The refinery straddles the Pennsylvania-Delaware line.
