Shale Boom Fuels Refinery Deal

Marathon Petroleum’s acquisition of Andeavor will benefit from surge in U.S. oil production

Until last year Andeavor was known as Tesoro, which means treasure in Spanish. The oil refiner that is being acquired by rival Marathon Petroleum for over $23 billion hadn’t produced that very consistently for most of its half-century history, though.

The U.S. shale boom smoothed the returns for what was a classic boom-and-bust industry. North American refining and logistics, the dowdier “downstream” part of the business, is now the place to be.

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