Sunoco purchased by Energy Transfer Partners for $5.3 billion

Energy Transfer Partners announced Monday that it had purchased Sunoco in a deal worth $5.3 billion.

The companies said in a joint statement that the move creates “one of the largest and most diversified energy partnerships in the country.”

ETF is a natural gas company based in Texas that owns thousands of miles of natural gas pipelines across America’s southeast and southwest.

Philadelphia-based Sunoco owns nearly 5,000 gas stations across the United States. It also owns a refining business, but said last year it was moving to exit that platform. The companies said in their statement that the merger would not have any impact on that decision, nor would it affect a potential venture Sunoco was exploring with the Carlyle Group.