Nov 3 (Reuters) - Marathon Petroleum on Tuesday beat Wall Street estimates for third-quarter profit on stronger refining margins and struck a $4.2 billion deal to sell two refineries and related midstream assets to Carl Icahn-controlled CVR Energy .
Marathon's shares rose about 2% in premarket trading.
The Iran war has disrupted oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz, while attacks on energy infrastructure across the Middle East and Russia have tightened fuel supplies, pushing up refined product prices
relative to crude.
The resulting surge in refining margins has boosted refinery profitability, creating an attractive opportunity for Marathon to monetize assets and for CVR to expand its operations.
Marathon's quarterly refining and marketing margin more than doubled to $45.70 per barrel.
The company's crude capacity utilization was 100%, with throughput of 3.2 million barrels per day (bpd), compared with 95% utilization and 3 million bpd a year earlier.
For the fourth quarter, Marathon expects total refinery throughput of 3.08 million bpd.
The top US refiner earned $26.93 per share on an adjusted basis, topping analysts' estimates of $24.47, according to LSEG.
Marathon returned $3.3 billion to shareholders during the quarter, raised its quarterly dividend by 10% and increased its share buyback capacity to $8.1 billion with an additional $5 billion authorization.
DIVESTITURE PLANS
Marathon will receive $3.45 billion for the St. Paul Park refinery in Minnesota and the Mandan refinery in North Dakota, while its midstream subsidiary, MPLX , will receive $750 million for related infrastructure.
The refineries have a combined crude processing capacity of 177,000 bpd.
Marathon plans to reinvest its proceeds primarily along the US Gulf Coast, while MPLX will deploy its share toward growth projects in the Permian and Marcellus basins.
Commodities trader Trafigura has agreed to invest $800 million in newly issued CVR shares for a minority stake.
Trafigura will also become the exclusive crude supplier and trading intermediary for the acquired refineries and enter into petroleum product offtake arrangements.
The deal is expected to close by the end of 2026.
(Reporting by Sumit Saha and Arunima Kumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)
