Marathon Petroleum Corporation (MPC) is an American petroleum refining, marketing, and transportation company headquartered in Findlay, Ohio.

The company was a wholly owned subsidiary of Marathon Oil until a corporate spin-off in 2011.

Following its acquisition of Andeavor on October 1, 2018, Marathon Petroleum became the largest petroleum refinery operator in the United States, with 16 refineries and over 3 million barrels per day of refining capacity.

Marathon Petroleum ranked No. 19 on the 2023 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue. In the 2020 Forbes Global 2000, Marathon Petroleum was ranked as the 197th-largest public company in the world.

Marathon Petroleum's marketing system includes branded locations across the United States, including Marathon branded outlets.

MPC also owns the general partner and majority limited partner interest in MPLX LP, a midstream company which owns and operates gathering, processing, and fractionation assets, as well as crude oil and light product transportation and logistics infrastructure.

MarkWest, a wholly owned subsidiary of MPLX LP (NYSE: MPLX), is engaged in the gathering, processing, and transportation of natural gas; the transportation, fractionation, storage and marketing of NGLs; and the gathering and transportation of crude oil.

MPLX is a diversified, large-cap master limited partnership formed by Marathon Petroleum Corporation (MPC) that owns and operates midstream energy infrastructure and logistics assets, and provides fuels distribution services. 

MPLX’s assets include a network of crude oil and refined product pipelines; an inland marine business; light-product terminals; storage caverns; refinery tanks, docks, loading racks, and associated piping; and crude and light-product marine terminals. 

The company also owns crude oil and natural gas gathering systems and pipelines as well as natural gas and natural gas liquids (NGL) processing and fractionation facilities in key U.S. supply basins. 

The Galveston Bay refinery is in Texas City, Texas, on Galveston Bay, off the entrance to the Houston Ship Channel. In 2018, Galveston Bay merged with MPC’s former Texas City refinery into a single world class refining complex with a crude oil refining capacity of 593,000 barrels per calendar day (bpcd). 

The refinery processes a wide variety of crude oils into gasoline, distillates, aromatics, heavy fuel oil, dry gas, fuel-grade coke, refinery-grade propylene, chemical-grade propylene and sulfur. Products are distributed via pipeline, barge, transport truck, rail and ocean tanker. The refinery has access to the export market and multiple options to sell refined products. 

An on-site co-generation facility currently has 1,055 megawatts of electrical production capacity and can produce 4.3 million pounds of steam per hour. Approximately 45 percent of the power generated in 2018 was used at the refinery, with the remaining electricity being sold into the electricity grid.

The enormous BP Amoco Oil Refinery in Texas City was built in 1934 by a company called Pan-American Refinery, which was at the time a subsidiary of Standard Oil of Indiana. The success of the refinery and the jobs it provided caused the population of Texas City to skyrocket. During World War II, the port and the refinery became very important to the war effort, as they manufactured materials for the military. 

Pan-American Refinery eventually became Amoco, which ran the Texas City refinery for many years. However, the company failed to make many safety improvements to the facility. In 1991, they opted against replacing outdated blowout drums in an effort to save money. BP acquired Amoco for $61 billion in 1999.

Like Amoco, BP avoided renovations in order to cut costs. In 2005, tragedy struck as the Texas City refinery experienced an enormous explosion that killed 15 workers and injured 180. An investigation by the U.S. Chemical Safety Board revealed that BP’s inadequate safety standards had in part been responsible for the explosion. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) fined the company a record total of $87 million, according to PBS Frontline. The refinery has also been implicated for excessive emissions. 

Eventually, in 2013, BP completed the sale of its Texas City refinery to Marathon Petroleum Corporation.

BP p.l.c. (formerly The British Petroleum Company plc and BP Amoco plc) is a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, England.

BP is one of the oil and gas "supermajors" and one of the world's largest companies measured by revenues and profits. 

BP is a vertically integrated company operating in all areas of the oil and gas industry, including exploration and extraction, refining, distribution and marketing, power generation, and trading.

Electronic Data Systems (EDS) was founded in 1962 by H. Ross Perot, a graduate of the United States Naval Academy and a successful IBM salesman who first-hand observed how inefficiently IBM's customers typically were using their expensive systems. Somewhat to IBM's chagrin, since the company wanted to sell as many computers as possible, Perot made a fortune changing this. An early success was in matching the unused computer time at Southwestern Life Insurance Company with the computing needs of rapidly expanding Collins Radio, both located in Dallas, Texas. Perot knew the inside details of both companies.

In 1984, the company was acquired by General Motors for $2.5 billion, with EDS becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of GM. Meyerson remained president and in 1985, the company had a presence in 21 countries with 40,000 employees. Meyerson retired in 1987. During his years of executive leadership, EDS revenue grew to $4 billion a year, and the company grew to 45,000 employees. By the end of the decade, revenue was $5 billion.

In 1996, GM spun off EDS as an independent company. In 2000, EDS launched a new logo with an award-winning Super Bowl commercial about herding cats.[5] Post-2000, they continued to sign long term, billion dollar contracts with organizations such as Bank of America, American Airlines, General Motors, Kraft Foods and the United States Navy. In 2006 they sold A.T. Kearney in a management buyout.

In May 2008, Hewlett-Packard Co. confirmed that it had reached a deal with EDS to acquire the company for $13.9 billion. The deal was completed on August 26, 2008. EDS became an HP business unit and was temporarily renamed "EDS, an HP company". Ronald A. Rittenmeyer, EDS Chairman, President, and CEO, remained at the helm and reported to HP CEO Mark Hurd until his retirement. In December 2008, HP announced that Rittenmeyer would retire at the end of the month.

As of 2008, EDS employed 300,000 people in 64 countries, the largest locations being the United States, India and the UK. It was ranked as one of the largest service companies on the Fortune 500 list with around 2,000 clients.

In September 2009, EDS began going to market as HP Enterprise Services, a name change which came one year after HP announced the acquisition of EDS, and which was a critical milestone as the integration of EDS into HP neared completion.

On April 3, 2017, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Services merged with Computer Sciences Corporation to form DXC Technology, retaining significant operations from Plano, Texas, and many aspects of EDS. On June 1, 2018, DXC spun off the U.S. public services sector of the business through a Reverse Morris Trust, combining with Vencore and KeyPoint Government Solutions to create a new independent and publicly traded government contractor, Perspecta Inc.

EDS and MCI WorldCom completed a significant outsourcing agreement in 1999 with the EDS purchase of MCI Systemhouse for $1.65 billion.

In one of the largest agreements of its kind, EDS and MCI WorldCom today announced a framework that positions the companies to seize opportunities in the converging global communications and computing markets. Each company and its customers will be better positioned to capitalize on the rapid growth in electronic business and global communications services.

There are four key elements of the agreement: In a 10-year agreement, MCI WorldCom will outsource major portions of its information technology services to EDS. EDS will assume responsibility for significant applications development and maintenance services and virtually all of MCI WorldCom's infrastructure services. When finalized, this will represent the largest IT outsourcing agreement in the telecommunications industry to date, with revenues to EDS expected to range from $5-$7 billion over the life of the contract.

EDS will outsource the bulk of its global network to MCI WorldCom, with MCI WorldCom handling end-to-end management of voice and data communications services on a preferred basis for EDS and its customers. This agreement is expected to approximate $6-$8.5 billion in revenues to MCI WorldCom over the next 10 years.

EDS will acquire MCI Systemhouse for $1.65 billion in cash. The acquisition of Systemhouse, an IT services provider that delivered $1.7 billion in revenue in 1998, will enhance EDS' applications consulting and systems integration capabilities and rank the company among the largest information technology services providers in Canada. EDS believes it will achieve substantial synergies by integrating Systemhouse into its existing infrastructure.

MCI WorldCom and EDS will capitalize on the fast-growing market for global communications and data services, including electronic business applications.

The companies intend to develop networking solutions to business and government entities worldwide utilizing the global capabilities of both companies. The expanded services will complement MCI WorldCom's existing array of network services now offered to large corporate and government users.

More than 12,000 employees primarily located in the U.S. and Canada are expected to transition into employment with EDS from MCI WorldCom and from Systemhouse. Approximately 1,000 EDS network employees from offices around the world will be offered employment with MCI WorldCom.

The MCI WorldCom IT outsourcing agreement names EDS as the company's preferred supplier of IT services. EDS will have responsibility for business process management for selected billing functions, defined applications development and maintenance, mainframe operations, desktop and help desk services and LAN support.

The network agreement provides for MCI WorldCom to outsource EDS' network and establishes MCI WorldCom as EDS' preferred supplier of communications and network integration services. MCI WorldCom will have responsibility for voice, data and video transport, and other network services for EDS and many of the company's network customers.

The marketing relationship with EDS strengthens MCI WorldCom's existing wide area network outsourcing, design, implementation and management services. MCI WorldCom currently manages hundreds of networks for leading multinational companies and organizations worldwide such as the United

MCI WorldCom is a global communications company with revenue of more than $30 billion and established operations in over 65 countries encompassing the Americas, Europe and the Asia-Pacific regions. MCI WorldCom is a premier provider of facilities-based and fully integrated local, long distance, international and Internet services. MCI WorldCom's global networks, including its state-of-the-art pan-European network and transoceanic cable systems, provide end-to-end high-capacity connectivity to more than 40,000 buildings worldwide.

During 1997, WorldCom and MCI merged in a deal valued at $37 billion. WorldCom finally won the takeover battle with British Telecommunications Plc and GTE Corp for the control of MCI Communications Corp.

The merger created a telecommunications conglomerate with estimated revenues of $30 billion in the year 1998. The deal combined the second and fourth largest US long-distance service providers to create a major powerhouse in global telecommunications and Internet services. The new company was renamed as MCI WorldCom.

The new MCI WorldCom became the second largest long-distance carrier behind AT&T Corporation. The new merged MCI WorldCom controlled about 25% of the long-distance market compared with approximately 50 percent share of AT&T. MCI WorldCom became the world’s largest carrier of Internet traffic. MCI WorldCom became one of the largest companies offering a range of services from local and long-distance to Internet services to over 22 million clients in over 200 countries.

MCI shareholders received $51 in WorldCom common stock for each MCI share they owned.

During 2005, Verizon Communications reached an agreement to acquire MCI for $7.6 billion. The acquisition of MCI gave Verizon an international long-distance network and several large corporate customers.

MCI Communications Corp. (originally Microwave Communications, Inc.) was a telecommunications company headquartered in Washington, D.C. that was at one point the second-largest long-distance provider in the United States.

MCI was instrumental in legal and regulatory changes that led to the breakup of the Bell System and introduced competition in the telephone industry. Its MCI Mail, launched in 1983, was one of the first Email services and its MCI.net was an integral part of the Internet backbone.

The company was acquired by WorldCom (later called MCI Inc.) in 1998.

MCI was founded as Microwave Communications, Inc. on October 3, 1963, with John D. Goeken being named the company's first president. The initial business plan was for the company to build a series of microwave radio relay stations between Chicago, Illinois, and St. Louis, Missouri. The relay stations would then be used to interface with limited-range two-way radios used by truckers along U.S. Route 66 or by barges on the Illinois Waterway. The long-distance communication service would then be marketed to shipping companies that were too small to build their own private relay systems. In addition to the radio relay services, MCI soon made plans to offer voice, computer information, and data communication services for business customers unable to afford AT&T's TELPAK service.

On June 26, 1968, the FCC ruled in the Carterfone case that AT&T's rules prohibiting private two-way radio connections to a telephone network were illegal. AT&T quickly sought a reversal of the ruling, and when the FCC denied the request, AT&T brought suit against the FCC in the United States courts of appeals. The FCC's decision was upheld, thus creating a new industry: privately (non-Bell) manufactured devices could be connected to the telephone network as long as the manufacturer met interface standards.

On 14 August 1969, the FCC issued a final ruling on Docket 16509, MCI's licensing request to begin building microwave relay stations between Chicago and St. Louis. By a decision of 4-to-3 MCI was licensed for operation. This ruling was quickly appealed by AT&T, and after a denial of the appeal by the commission, AT&T filed a civil suit with the United States courts of appeals to have the ruling overturned.

Illinois Bell refused to interconnect an MCI long haul interstate circuit and, in January 1974, MCI filed an antitrust lawsuit against AT&T. On June 13, 1980, a jury in Chicago awarded MCI $1.8 billion in damages to be paid by AT&T, reduced to $113 million in 1985 on appeal. The suit, coupled with the Department of Justice antitrust suit also brought against AT&T, eventually led to the voluntary breakup of the Bell System.

Historical Milestones:

In 1982, MCI worked with Ally & Gargano to create what Entertainment Weekly referred to in 1997 as one of the 50 best commercials of all time. MCI hired the same actors used in an AT&T commercial in 1981. In the AT&T version, the son calls his mother and, when asked why, replied “just ‘cuz I love you”, which was not a common reason to make an expensive long-distance call, causing the mother to cry. In the MCI version, when the husband asked the wife why she was crying, she replied "I just received my phone bill"... after which an announcer's voice stated "You're not talking too much, you're just paying too much. MCI: The Nation's New Long Distance Telephone Company."

On September 27, 1983, an MCI division led by Vint Cerf, one of the developers of the TCP/IP protocol, launched MCI Mail, one of the first email services, and a data network using the CCITT X.25 packet switching protocol.

In 1984, MCI became the first company to deploy single-mode optical fiber (the standard had been multi-mode optical fiber), which was manufactured by Siecor, a joint venture between Siemens Telecom and Corning Glass Company. Referred to as MAFOS (Mid-Atlantic Fiber Optic System), the fiber cable ran between New York City and Washington D.C. Eventually, single-mode fiber became the standard for US telecommunications carriers.

In 1987, MCI acquired RCA Global from General Electric.

In 1987, MCI partnered with IBM and Merit Network (a network run by triad of universities in Michigan) to respond to a National Science Foundation proposal to develop a high-speed telecommunications network called National Science Foundation Network (NSFNET). This network used the TCP/IP protocol that had been developed by the United States Department of Defense ARPANet and was the immediate forerunner to the Internet. In 1988, Vint Cerf was working at CNRI and obtained support from MCI and permission from the Federal Networking Council to interconnect MCI Mail with the NSFNET. In 1989, it was the first commercial e-mail service to do so. Immediately, most of the other commercial e-mail providers also got permission to interconnect to the Internet, leading to their interconnection with each other. In 1994, NSF announced that it would terminate the NSFNET operation and support the development of Network Access Point operation to link the networks that had been interconnected by NSFNET. NSF also proposed that an academic research network be built called the Very high-speed Backbone Network Service (vBNS) and MCI responded. MCI also built a separate commercial Internet service, MCI.net, which was an integral part of the global Internet backbone. It was sold to Cable & Wireless plc as part of the merger of MCI with Worldcom in 1998.

In 1990, the company acquired Telecom*USA and became the second-largest telecommunications company in the U.S., with a fiber-optic network spanning more than 46,000 miles. The company offered more than 50 services in more than 150 countries that included voice, data, and telex transmissions, MCI Mail and MCI Fax.

In March 1991, the company introduced the Friends & Family plan, whereby customers received a reduced rate when calling numbers they had included in their "calling circle", which could contain up to 20 MCI customers.

In 1993, the company introduced a collect call service called "1-800-COLLECT". Actors Phil Hartman, Chris Rock, and Arsenio Hall starred in some of its commercials,[27] but the most commonly used spokesperson was the fictional Eva Save-a-lot, played by actress Alyssa Milano.[28] The service was sold to viiz in 2016.

In 1995, the company partnered with News Corporation on a satellite television venture, known as American Sky Broadcasting (named after Murdoch's UK DBS company). It intended to broadcast from two satellites at the 110 degree orbital slot; but the venture never started broadcasting. The orbital slot and an uplink center were sold to EchoStar in 1999; the planned satellites Tempo 1 and Tempo 2 were sold to PrimeStar, whose assets were sold to DirecTV in 1999.

In October 1994, BT Group acquired 20% of the company for $4.3 billion.

In November 1995, MCI introduced 1-800-MUSIC-NOW, a short-lived telephone-based and online music store.

BT made an offer to purchase the rest of the company in November 1996 for $22 billion. In October 1997, GTE, now a part of Verizon, made a bid to purchase MCI for $28 billion in cash. WorldCom offered $34.7 billion in stock, higher than either the BT or GTE offers, which was accepted by MCI on November 10, 1997. On September 15, 1998 the transaction was consummated and the merged company renamed MCI WorldCom Two years later, the "MCI" part was dropped.

Following a major accounting scandal, WorldCom filed bankruptcy in 2002 and the company was renamed MCI Inc. upon its exit from bankruptcy in 2003. Before then, however, many executive posts were taken over by holdovers from the old MCI. After the name change, one of those executives said, "We're taking our company back."