lack of standalone refiners
22 replies (most recent on top)
Face it - We are incompatible with Marathon. We are too busy ‘sprinting’ myopic illusions of grandeur. Gogo and his ELT would have been unwelcome on the future leadership.
@10j I have a better one: Marathon. A better run company that is also larger by market cap. They should keep their name.
Too many skeletons in gogos closet.
@1j2 I certainly believe 150pct of that. I don’t understand the obsession with keeping KM around. He’s been mediocre to bad from a strategic & fiduciary perspective over his tenure (I cannot believe he signed off on the “peer of one” campaign before the proxy vote last year-probably pushed given poor performance vs peers)……and he’s a walking harassment/discrimination suit waiting to happen given his well known in-office social life.
Who knows. Anyway, thx for the additional insight. There was one he-l of a lot of smoke & mirrors during that period of time at PSX-but then again, it’s somewhat par for the course. Shouldn’t ever be surprised..
@vp I know that this is also of interest. Funny how things shift: business is volatile, PSX management does not want anything to do with refining. Earnings blow out and they want to buy at the top of the cycle. Mo--ns. That is how value gets destroyed
@1az as a follow up, the reason it was not done is that Kevin Mitchell and Rex Bennett believed in such a rosy stand along case for PSX that everything else looked poor in comparison. When you believe in unrealistic earnings with little capital, of course it looks dilutive. Let’s be honest, they just did not want to lose their cushy overpaid jobs for doing very little. And somehow Kevin continues to survive. Dishing out the same poor advice.
@1az - that’s even worse and more damning. The two ELT members I dealt with day to day at the time definitely stated verbatim that “no viable case was put forward” both almost to the word - which from where I sit according to your knowledge sounds like a$$ covering.
Sounds like you are saying that GG was more irritated at himself & certain other members of the ELT/Board about the lack of execution post-haste rather than not being presented anything “viable”. I guess “viable” is in the eye of the beholder. Which at the time was certainly GG.
No one seemed to care at the time about Andeavor in and of itself being accretive. Certain folks definitely seemed p’d off that it was MPC doing it …… and that it effectively took MPC off the table (at least for a while). It’s fairly pathetic.
Anyway thx for opening the shades a bit - as we all know, sunlight has long been the best disinfectant (especially at PSX).
Due diligence flopped.
@10x they did propose it. I reviewed the materials. They rejected it out of conservatism regarding the impact to share dilution. Chicken sh-t scared about doing anything that might even momentarily upset analysts. They had an opportunity and the board and CEO passed on it. FACT
PSX is a POS company!
@10j Shitco
@dm Good point.
If you recall back in ‘18 the prior CEO went ballistic that PSX BD didn’t propose a good case to move on MPC before they swallowed Andeavor; realization at the time was that as strategic as a linkup with MPC may have been at the time, PSX’s obsession with loading up PSXP, with the debt covenants associated with CPChem, and continuing to bail out a lagging DCP at the time (which certain board members were beginning to become dead set against - particularly a particular female one who was very plugged in and effectively started chewing out the CFO in particular about) just slapped on blinders to doing just about anything else in any size relative to FID, let alone full blown M&A.
Strategy and BD completely dropped the ball and were robotic in thinking, hence the idea never being presented seriously. That said, the top down messaging was hardly supportive of such a thing either.
Truth be told, the company was about as anti-Refining investment as it has ever been at the time which was another death knell, and so unbelievably shortsighted. And yes - the entire ELT went along for the ride.
You don’t have to always sacrifice all of one segment for another - you can do both; that’s what a portfolio is about.
In looking back - the fact that PSX totally pooh-poohed an acquisition in MPC buying & integrating the misfit parts that made up Andeavor at the time kind of says it all. They (MPC) made it work and added value, and saw past the fact that it would initially be difficult.
PSX going back to the well now for a linkup with MPC feels a day late and a dollar short - although if it ever got by regulators it likely would benefit shareholders. It’s clearly Elliott driven, though (obviously).
Best merger name: MP66? Marathon 66?
@vp, what about Citgo?
Who here thinks we are going to try and buy HF Sinclair?
I bet MPC could run PSX a he-l of a lot better than its current management
@dm I believe you, but a ridiculous way to go about it. Poor decision making and lack of judgment. At a time when the public is once again being unfairly primed to see the industry in a negative and greedy light. To expect this to ever fly.
We need real leadership.
I know this rumor to be true as someone close to it told me about it back in February.
If it truly fell apart I suspect Elliott will again turn their sights on PSX. This was intended to be Go Go’s way of exiting to save face. Glad it did not work out for him.
The calm before the storm. Did you really think Western Gateway was going to grow P66? The cheese is on the trap. Good luck P66, the wolves are about to eat.
@aj you clearly have no idea what your talking about
@af I heard that there was concern about having to take on so much dead weight with the PSX employee population. It sank the deal!
Wonder what shut it down. Don't think the current administration would have any problems creating new monopolies.