[5] While the merger with Richfield and eventual rebranding of the stations to ARCO was successful, it did essentially make the company a bi-coastal chain, having no presence from east of the Rocky Mountains to west of the Appalachian Mountains (save for Western Pennsylvania, since Atlantic was prominent in that state).

The former Sinclair retail operations struggled, and ARCO abandoned its national ambitions, pulling out of a number of states beginning in the mid-1970s.

Meanwhile, ARCO began to find success in Richfield's old West Coast territory as a low-cost gasoline provider.

Some were acquired by Shell, notably in New Jersey, but the larger portion went to a new company controlled by Dutch banker and oil trader John Deuss.

The new company revived the Atlantic name, discontinued the use of methanol in its gasoline and launched its own convenience store brand, A-Plus.

While Atlantic was able to rebuild its station network during the short time it was owned by Deuss, Deuss's legal problems overseas involving carousel fraud, supplying apartheid South Africa with oil, and an unsuccessful attempt to corner the oil market by colluding with OPEC eventually led to Atlantic to struggle financially.

However, in 1993, the decision was made to consolidate the two under one banner to reduce marketing costs, electing to use the more well-known Sunoco brand.

[7] Despite multiple oil companies operating multiple brands in the decades since (primarily due to mergers & acquisitions) such as ExxonMobil, Chevron Corporation, BP, Phillips 66, and current ARCO parent Marathon Petroleum, Sunoco has elected not to revive the Atlantic brand.

This Sunoco asset has since been reorganized as a separate company called Philadelphia Energy Solutions in which it holds a stake but is majority owned by Carlyle Group.