Of the total sites, 112 are owned in fee or subject to long-term leases and have average gasoline throughput of approximately 175,000 gallons a month. The remaining network includes supply for 34 contract dealer owned-and-operated locations and 194 branded distributor sites. Of the network, 31 sites are company-operated and have convenience stores. All units will be rebranded to Sunoco, and the convenience stores will carry Sunoco's APlus banner.

John Drosdick, Sunoco's chairman and CEO, says, "These stations will expand our retail network in the mid-Atlantic region and nicely complement our core Northeast market and our recent expansion to the Southeast." The units will also "upgrade Sunoco's retail portfolio," he adds.

The ConocoPhillips acquisition follows Sunoco's February 2003 purchase of 193 Speedway and SuperAmerica outlets in Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia--a move that represented the company's re-entry into the Southeast.

Sunoco's first-quarter 2004 net income was $89 million, compared with $86 million for the first quarter last year. Retail marketing, however, lost $4 million because "retail gasoline prices lagged sharply higher wholesale prices throughout the quarter," Drosdick said in presenting his company's first-quarter results. Retail gasoline margins in 2004 were down almost two cents a gallon compared with first-quarter 2003, he reported. Sunoco operates 4,500 retail gasoline and convenience store outlets in the US.