Marathon Petroleum reported improved fourth quarter results although full year earnings tumbled year-over-year.
Marathon reported 2016 fourth quarter earnings of $227 million, or $0.43 per diluted share, compared with $187 million in the fourth quarter of 2015.
Full year 2016 earnings were $1.17 billion, or $2.21 per diluted share, compared with $2.85 billion, or $5.26 per diluted share, for 2015.
The company’s refining and marketing segment saw fourth quarter income from operations improve to $219 million, up from $179 million in the year-ago quarter.
Full year 2016 refining and market income from operations declined to $1.54 million compared to $4.08 billion for the full year 2015.
The company’s Speedway segment earned $165 million from operations in the fourth quarter of 2016, compared to an income of $135 million in the year-ago quarter.
Full year income from operations for the company’s Speedway segment rose to $734 million, up from $673 million for the full year of 2015.
Marathon’s midstream segment saw its income from operations climb to $245 million in the fourth quarter of 2016, up significantly from $94 million the year-ago period.
Full year midstream segment income from operations surged to $871 million, up from $380 million for the full year 2015.
Fourth quarter corporate and other unallocated items came in at a $76 million loss for the fourth quarter of 2016 compared to a loss of $70 million in the prior-year quarter.
Full year corporate and other unallocated items improved to a loss of $277 million compared to a loss of $299 million for the full year of 2015.
Total fourth quarter income from operations rose to $553 million compared to $338 million in the prior year quarter.
Full year 2016 income from operations declined to $2.37 billion compared to $4.69 billion a year ago.
Marathon had 887 million in cash and cash equivalents on December 31, 2016.
The company has $2.5 billion available under a revolving credit agreement, $1 billion available under a 364-day bank revolving credit facility and about $684 million available under its $750 million trade receivables securitization facility.
Marathon’s total liquidity stood at $5.1 billion as of December 31.
Marathon plans to spend $1.4 billion to $1.7 billion of organic growth capital in 2017 and $100 million of maintenance capital.
The company said about $1 billion to $1.3 billion of those growth investments are for the development of natural gas and gas liquids infrastructure to support Marathon’s producer customers, primarily in the prolific Marcellus Shale.
Marathon plans to spend the remaining $400 million of growth capital is planned for the development of various crude oil and refined petroleum products infrastructure projects.
Those projects include a build-out of Utica Shale infrastructure in connection with the recently completed Cornerstone Pipeline, a butane cavern in Robinson, Illinois, and a tank farm expansion in Texas City, Texas.
“Our fourth-quarter and full-year 2016 results reflect solid operational and financial performance across the business despite a challenging commodity price and margin environment,” Marathon chairman, president and chief executive officer Gary R. Heminger said.
