Sunoco Inc has tapped former General Motors CEO Mr Fritz Henderson to lead the energy spin off it is forming early next year.

Mr Henderson is joining Pittsburgh based Sunoco as a senior vice president and will help prepare for SunCoke Energy to split from the company's core oil refining and gasoline station business in the first half of 2011. He will then become chairman and CEO of SunCoke, Sunoco's metallurgical coke manufacturing operations.

SunCoke Energy has operations in Virginia, Indiana, Ohio and Illinois. It is building a plant in Middletown, Ohio, that is slated to produce 550,000 tons of coke and 46 megawatts of electricity when fully operational in the second half of 2011. It also operates and has a stake in a 1.7 million tonnes per year coke making operation in Vitoria, Brazil.

(Sourced from Associated Press)