Marathon Petroleum to buy Andeavor for $23 billion

(Reuters) - Marathon Petroleum Corp said on Monday it would buy rival Andeavor for more than $23 billion to form a company that would leapfrog Valero Energy Corp as the largest U.S. refiner by capacity.

The cash-and-stock deal values Andeavor at about $152 per share, representing a premium of about 24 percent to Andeavor stock's Friday close.

The combined company will have the ability to process about 3.1 million barrels per day and have a large network of retail stations, oil, natural gas and refined products pipelines.

The deal is expected to produce $1 billion of synergies, Marathon said.

Marathon Chief Executive Gary Heminger will run the combined company, with a senior role for Andeavor's chief executive, Gregory Goff.

San Antonio, Texas-based Andeavor, formerly known as Tesoro, operates 10 refineries in the western United States with a refining capacity of about 1.2 million barrels per day, and ownership in a logistics business, according to Andeavor website.

Valero, which has similar overall refining capacity of 3.1 million barrels per day, has refineries in Canada and Britain apart from the United States.

(Reporting by Shubham Kalia in Bengaluru, additional reporting Gary McWilliams in Houston; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier and Anil D'Silva)