Marathon Oil Corporation is an American petroleum company that has existed since 1887. Marathon was founded in Lima, Ohio as the Ohio Oil Company. In 1899, the company was acquired by the Standard Oil Company. After the antitrust case against Jersey Standard in 1911 and subsequent breakup of its holdings, Ohio Oil once again became an independent company. In 1930, Ohio Oil acquired the Transcontinental Oil Company, which operated the "Marathon" brand of retail gasoline stations. Ohio Oil continued to use the Marathon brand, and in 1962, Ohio changed its name to the Marathon Oil Company. In January 1982, Marathon was acquired by United States Steel. After the acquisition, the USX Corporation was created to act as the parent of U.S. Steel and Marathon Oil, which operated as divisions. In 2001, USX spun off Marathon under the name Marathon Oil Corporation. In 2011, Marathon Oil spun off its downstream operations as Marathon Petroleum. Since 2011, Marathon Oil has operated as an independent exploration and production company. The company is ranked 534th on the Fortune 500 and 1900th on the Forbes Global 2000. Wikipedia