Sunoco

1800s to 1900s: founding and growth

Newspaper ad for Sunoco motor oil, then known as Sun Oil Tulsa Daily World (November 1, 1922)

The partnership began as The Peoples Natural Gas Company in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1886, its partners – Joseph Newton Pew, Philip Pisano, and Edward O. Emerson – decided to expand their gas business with a stake in the new oil discoveries in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Four years later, the growing enterprise became the Sun Oil Company of Ohio. Sun Oil diversified quickly, active in production and distribution of oil as well as processing and marketing refined products. By 1901, the company was incorporated in New Jersey as Sun Company and turned its interest to the new Spindletop field in Texas. Pew's sons, J. Howard Pew and Joseph N. Pew, Jr. would take over the company after their father's death.

With a growing portfolio of oil fields and refineries, Sun opened its first service station in Ardmore, Pennsylvania in 1920. In 1922, it changed its name back to Sun Oil Company and, in 1925, it became a public company via an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange. Sunoco ranked 39th among United States corporations in the value of World War II production contracts.^[2] Sun expanded internationally following the war. Its first Canadian refinery was built in 1953 in Sarnia, Ontario, home to a burgeoning new petrochemical industry. Sun established a facility at Venezuela's Lake Maracaibo in 1957, which produced over a billion barrels (160,000,000 m³) before the operation was nationalized in 1975.

1960s to 2000s: acquisitions and branding

In 1967, Sun established its Great Canadian Oil Sands Limited facility in northern Alberta, Canada, to help unlock the estimated 300 billion barrels (48 km³) of recoverable oil in the Athabasca oil sands.

In 1968, Sun Oil merged with Tulsa, Oklahoma-based Sunray DX Oil Company, which refined and marketed gasoline under the DX brand in several midwestern states, and included several refineries.^[4] Its Tulsa refinery was operated by Sun until its sale in June 2009 to Holly Corporation of Dallas.^[5] This move expanded Sun's marketing area into the mid-continent region.

Sun Oil continued marketing its petroleum products under both the Sunoco and DX brands through the 1970s and into the 1980s. In the late 1980s, Sun began rebranding DX stations in the Midwest to the Sunoco brand and even introduced the high-octane Sunoco ULTRA 94 gasoline to stations in that region, but by the early 1990s, they pulled out of virtually all areas in the southeastern U.S. and west of the Mississippi, resulting in the closing and rebranding of service stations and jobbers to other brands in those areas, notably Sinclair in Oklahoma. Ironically enough, they also at this time offered Economy 86, which was the lowest commercially available gasoline at the time.

With increased diversification, Sun Oil Company was renamed Sun Company in 1976. In 1980, Sun acquired the U.S. oil and gas properties of Texas Pacific Oil Company, Inc., a subsidiary of The Seagram Company, Ltd., for US$2.3 billion—the second largest acquisition in U.S. history to that date.

Through the 1980s, Sun developed oil interests in the North Sea and offshore China and expanded its holdings in both oil and coal with additional U.S. business acquisitions. In 1983, consumers saw the arrival of Sunoco ULTRA 94, the market's highest octane unleaded gasoline. Then in 1988, Sun undertook a major restructuring to segregate its domestic oil and gas exploration and production business and the focus the company on its refining and marketing business. This led to the acquisition of Atlantic Refining and Marketing (and, in effect, that company's convenience store chain, A-Plus), including its Philadelphia refinery which was later merged with the former Gulf Oil refinery next door that Sunoco acquired from Chevron.

By the 1990s, Sun had departed the international exploration business and was fully dedicated to its branded products and services. In 1994, Sunoco acquired the Philadelphia Chevron Oil refinery consolidating operations with its own adjacent which it had acquired with Atlantic. Sun sold its remaining interest in Canada's Suncor Energy in 1995, but markets product from two refineries – one in Toledo, Ohio, and the other Sarnia, Ontario – in joint ventures.^[6] In 1998, Sun Company, Inc. became Sunoco, Inc. In 2011 the Toledo facility was sold to PBF Energy.

In 1998, Sun acquired the chemical business of Allied Signal, including a phenol plant. The business was renamed as "Sunoco Chemicals, Inc."^[7] In 2011, the plant was acquired by Honeywell for $85 million.^[8]

In 2003, Speedway LLC, then a subsidiary of Marathon Petroleum, sold 193 convenience stores to Sunoco.^[9] It also acquired many service stations from Coastal Petroleum.^[10]

Sunoco fuel supply truck at 2010 NASCAR race

In 2004, Sunoco replaced the ConocoPhillips' 76 brand as the official fuel of NASCAR.^[11]>

After ConocoPhillips abandoned the marketing of the Mobil brand name in the Washington, DC, area, Sunoco purchased these rights, converted Maryland and Virginia Mobil stations to the Sunoco brand, bringing the A-Plus convenience store with them – prior to this, these stations had convenience stores under the Circle K or On the Run brands.

In September 2009, Sunoco sold its retail heating oil and propane distribution business to Superior Plus for $82.5 million in cash.^[12][13]

In 2012, Sunoco demolished its Eagle Point refinery complex in West Deptford Township, New Jersey, which had been idle since 2010.^[14]

In Canada, the Sunoco brand was licensed for the Ontario retail gas station operations of Suncor Energy until 2010. Following Suncor's acquisition of Petro-Canada, all Canadian Sunoco outlets were converted to Petro-Canada branding.^[15]

Exit from refinery business

In December 2010, Sunoco sold its refinery in Toledo, Ohio to PBF Energy for US$400,000,000. Effective 6 September 2011, Sunoco announced that it would exit the crude oil refining business and seek to sell its Philadelphia and Marcus Hook refineries by mid-2012. The company has said that its cost for exiting the refining business could be as high as US$2.7 billion. According to one report, the company had lost some US$800,000,000 on refining operations since 2009; an earlier report provided a figure of US$772,000,000.

On December 1, 2011, Sunoco announced it would accelerate closure of the Marcus Hook facility.^[16] The Marcus Hook facility, founded in 1902 and covering 781 acres, was dedicated exclusively to the processing of light sweet crude oil; this processing focus combined with volatility in crude oil prices are considered contributing factors to both this refinery's closure and Sunoco's exit from the refinery business.^[17]

Joint venture with Carlyle Group

In September 2012, Sunoco formed a joint venture with The Carlyle Group, allowing for the continuation of operations at the Philadelphia refinery, and saving over 800 jobs.^[18][19] On January 22, 2018, the joint venture, named Philadelphia Energy Solutions, filed for bankruptcy.^[20]

Sale to Energy Transfer Partners and merger with Susser Holdings

In 2012, Dallas-based energy company Energy Transfer Partners purchased Sunoco.^[21]

In 2013, the company acquired convenience stores from Catterton Partners.^[22]

In 2014, Energy Transfer Partners acquired Susser Holdings Corporation, the parent company of Stripes Convenience Stores, and merged it with Sunoco into a master limited partnership.^[23] In Texas, the Sunoco brand replaced Valero Energy at the Stripes locations; Stripes and A-Plus remained separate brands.

Also in 2014, Sunoco acquired Aloha Petroleum.^[24]

In 2015, Sunoco entered into an agreement to purchase MD America operations in east Texas.^[23] Its subsidiary, Aloha Petroleum, acquired stores including a Subway in Hawaii.^[25]

In November 2016, Sunoco Logistics LP acquired Energy Transfer Partners LP for $21 billion.^[26]

Effective December 31, 2017, Robert "Bob" W. Owens, the president and chief executive officer, retired.^[27]

Exclusive deals

In addition to the sponsorship deal with NASCAR, Sunoco also has exclusive deals as the gasoline supplier at all Indy Racing League races and the travel plazas along the Ohio Turnpike, Pennsylvania Turnpike, New Jersey Turnpike, Garden State Parkway, Atlantic City Expressway, Palisades Parkway, and Delaware Turnpike.^{[28][29][30][31][32]}

Sunoco also operates some of the filling stations on the New York Thruway, as well as the two service areas - Chesapeake House and Maryland House - along Interstate 95 in Maryland.^[33]

In addition, Sunoco also owns & operates a station with an A-Plus convenience store at Pittsburgh International Airport, as Sunoco has a very large market share in Pittsburgh.

Due to its large presence in Western Pennsylvania, Sunoco is a longtime sponsor of the Pittsburgh Pirates, with an advertisement for Sunoco being present in left field at PNC Park.^[34]

Sunoco became the official fuel supplier of the IZOD IndyCar Series (now the Verizon IndyCar Series) in 2011.^[35]

Sale of stores to Seven & I Holdings Co.

In January 2018, the company sold 1,030 retail stores to 7-Eleven and agreed to supply 2.2 billion gallons of fuel to 7-Eleven convenience stores annually for 15 years.^[36][37]