. for the unaffilated canadian oil company see suncor energy . not to be confused with sonoco a packaging products company . sunoco inc. type subsidiary of energy transfer partners traded as nyse sun industry oil and gas founded 1886 ; 130 years ago 1886 as sun company inc. pittsburgh pennsylvania u.s. founder joseph newton pew philip pisano edward o. emerson headquarters philadelphia pennsylvania u.s. area served worldwide key people robert w. owens president and ceo 1 products petrochemical petroleum fuel lubricants revenue us 44.58 billion 2011 net income us 1.68 billion 2011 2 total assets us 11.98 billion 2011 2 number of employees 10 500 2011 website sunocoinc.com sunoco service station ypsilanti michigan sunoco is an american petroleum and petrochemical manufacturer headquartered in newtown square pennsylvania united states formerly known as sun company inc. 1886 1920 and 1976 1998 and sun oil co. 1920 1976 . sunoco is one of the largest gasoline distribution companies in the united states with sunoco brand gasoline being sold in over 4 700 outlets spanning 26 states 3 just over a third hosting convenience stores . 4 since 2012 sunoco has been a wholly owned subsidiary of energy transfer partners based in dallas texas . sunoco is a fortune 100 company . in 2011 it was ranked as the third largest company by revenue in pennsylvania after amerisourcebergen and comcast . 5 in 2011 the company decided to exit the oil refinery business . 6 in canada the sunoco brand was licensed for the ontario retail gas station operations of suncor energy until 2010 . following suncor s acquisition of petro canada all canadian sunoco outlets were converted to petro canada branding . contents 1 history 1.1 1800s to 1900s founding and growth 1.1.1 custom blending 1.2 1960s to 2000s acquisitions and branding 1.3 exit from refinery business 1.4 joint venture with carlyle group 1.5 sale to energy transfer partners and merger with susser holdings 2 gasoline sales 2.1 exclusive deals 3 environmental record 4 as a sponsor 5 see also 6 references 7 external links history edit 1800s to 1900s founding and growth edit the integrated oil company now known as sunoco began as the peoples natural gas company in pittsburgh pennsylvania . in 1886 its partners joseph newton pew philip pisano and edward o. emerson decided to expand their gas business with a stake in the new oil discoveries in ohio and pennsylvania . four years later the growing enterprise became the sun oil company of ohio . sun oil diversified quickly active in production and distribution of oil as well as processing and marketing refined products . by 1901 the company was incorporated in new jersey as sun company and turned its interest to the new spindletop field in texas . pew s sons j. howard pew and joseph n. pew jr. would take over the company after their father s death . newspaper ad for sunoco motor oil then known as sun oil tulsa daily world november 1 1922 with a growing portfolio of oil fields and refineries in hand sun opened its first service station in ardmore pennsylvania in 1920 . the name changed back to sun oil company in 1922 and in 1925 sun became a publicly traded company on the new york stock exchange . sunoco ranked 39th among united states corporations in the value of world war ii production contracts . 7 sun expanded internationally following the war . its first canadian refinery was built in 1953 in sarnia ontario home to a burgeoning new petrochemical industry . sun established a facility at venezuela s lake maracaibo in 1957 which produced over a billion barrels 160 000 000 m3 before the operation was nationalized in 1975 . custom blending edit sunoco is perhaps best known to consumers for its custom blending pumps an innovation that beginning in 1956 allowed customers of sunoco service stations to choose from several octane grades through a single pump . citation needed sunoco stations offered as many as eight grades of custom blended gasolines from its dial a grade pumps ranging from subregular sunoco 190 to sunoco 260 citation needed the latter a super premium grade of 102 octane citation needed that was advertised as the highest octane pump gas citation needed and very popular with v8 powered muscle cars of the 1960s . citation needed sun oil is pew charitable trust and they want skills for the morton collection at upenn . 1960s to 2000s acquisitions and branding edit in 1967 sun established its great canadian oil sands limited facility in northern alberta canada to help unlock the estimated 300 billion barrels 48 km3 of recoverable oil in the athabasca oil sands . in 1968 sun oil merged with tulsa oklahoma based sunray dx oil company which refined and marketed gasoline under the dx brand in several midwestern states and included several refineries including one in tulsa that was operated by sun until its sale in june 2009 to holly corporation of dallas . 8 this move expanded sun s marketing area into the mid continent region . sun oil continued marketing its petroleum products under both the sunoco and dx brands through the 1970s and into the 1980s . in the late 1980s sun began rebranding dx stations in the midwest to the sunoco brand and even introduced the high octane sunoco ultra 94 gasoline to stations in that region but by the early 1990s they pulled out of virtually all areas in the southeastern u.s. and west of the mississippi resulting in the closing and rebranding of service stations and jobbers to other brands in those areas notably sinclair in oklahoma . with increased diversification sun oil company was renamed sun company in 1976 . in 1980 sun acquired the u.s. oil and gas properties of texas pacific oil company inc. a subsidiary of the seagram company ltd. for us 2.3 billion the second largest acquisition in u.s. history to that date . through the 1980s sun developed oil interests in the north sea and offshore china and expanded its holdings in both oil and coal with additional u.s. business acquisitions . in 1983 consumers saw the arrival of sunoco ultra 94 the market s highest octane unleaded gasoline . then in 1988 sun undertook a major restructuring to segregate its domestic oil and gas exploration and production business and the focus the company on its refining and marketing business . this led to the acquisition of atlantic refining and marketing and in effect that company s convenience store chain a plus including its philadelphia refinery which was later merged with the former gulf oil refinery next door that sunoco acquired from chevron . by the 1990s sun had departed the international exploration business and was fully dedicated to its branded products and services . in 1994 sunoco acquired the philadelphia chevron oil refinery consolidating operations with its own adjacent which it had acquired with atlantic . sun sold its remaining interest in canada s suncor energy in 1995 but markets product from two refineries one in toledo ohio and the other sarnia ontario in joint ventures . 9 in 1998 sun company inc. became sunoco inc. in 2011 the toledo facility was sold to pbf energy . by 1998 sun had acquired allied signal inc. chemical plants . allied signal inc. being on the stock exchange sold half of the company to honeywell inc. and the other half to sunoco inc. the chemical portion of the business was called sunoco chemicals inc. in 2003 the speedway superamerica chain of gas stations and convenience stores exited the southeastern united states and sold most of their operations to sunoco . shortly prior to this sunoco acquired many service stations from coastal petroleum especially its stations in florida . this has led to the reintroduction of the sunoco brand to areas it pulled out of ten years earlier . coincidentally speedway would later re enter the southeast with its purchase of hess corporation s downstream operations in 2014 mirroring that of sunoco s return to the southeast . 10 sunoco fuel supply truck at 2010 nascar race in 2004 sunoco replaced conocophillips 76 brand as the official fuel of nascar . after conocophillips abandoned the marketing of the mobil brand name in the washington dc area sunoco purchased these rights and has since been converting maryland and virginia mobil stations to the sunoco brand bringing the a plus convenience store with them prior to this these stations had convenience stores under the circle k or on the run brands . in september 2009 sunoco announced the sale of its retail heating oil and propane distribution business to superior plus corp for 82.5 million in cash . 11 in october 2009 sunoco announced it will idle and possibly permanently shut down its eagle point westville nj plant laying off over 400 employees . exit from refinery business edit in december 2010 sunoco sold its refinery in toledo ohio to pbf energy for us 400 000 000 . 6 effective 6 september 2011 sunoco announced that it would exit the crude oil refining business and seek to sell its philadelphia and marcus hook refineries by mid 2012 . 6 the company has said that its cost for exiting the refining business could be as high as us 2.7 billion . 6 according to one report the company had lost some us 800 000 000 on refining operations since 2009 ; 1 an earlier report provided a figure of us 772 000 000 . 6 on december 1 2011 sunoco announced it would accelerate closure of the marcus hook facility with a target completion in 90 days . 1 the marcus hook facility founded in 1902 and covering 781 acres was dedicated exclusively to the processing of light sweet crude oil ; 1 this processing focus combined with volatility in crude oil prices are considered contributing factors to both this refinery s closure and sunoco s exit from the refinery business . 12 joint venture with carlyle group edit after weeks of negotiations it was announced that sunoco would be forming a joint venture with the carlyle group allowing for the continuation of operations at the philadelphia refinery and saving over 800 jobs . 13 the joint venture began in late 2012 . sale to energy transfer partners and merger with susser holdings edit in 2012 dallas based energy company energy transfer partners purchased sunoco making sunoco a wholly owned subsidiary . 14 as energy transfer partners was more interested in sunoco s pipeline and refining business that the company was originally planning on exiting it led to speculation that energy transfer partners would eventually spin off sunoco s retail business or sell it outright to a competitor . 15 in 2014 energy transfer partners announced its purchase of susser holdings corporation the parent company of stripes convenience stores and plans on merging it into sunoco . 15 upon completion of the merger sunoco will be placed into a limited partnership called susser petroleum partners l.p. in which energy transfer will have an ownership stake . the deal saw the arrival of the sunoco brand in texas where it replaced valero at the stripes locations ; stripes and a plus remain separate brands . also in 2014 sunoco acquired aloha petroleum . 16 in 2015 sunoco entered into an agreement to purchase md america operations in east texas . 15 that same year sunoco became a subway franchisee by opening subway at the north midway service plaza on the pennsylvania turnpike near bedford pennsylvania . gasoline sales edit sunoco is the only major gasoline retailer to sell four grades of gasoline in the u.s. citation needed due to its proprietary citation needed pumps which blend regular with ultra93 to obtain the mid grades citation needed with octane ratings in parentheses regular 87 plus 89 premium 91 ultra93 formerly ultra94 ; sunoco began phasing out the 94 octane gasoline in the first decade