Marathon Oil's aircraft lands in South Bend as Indiana coal plant order is renewed

Marathon Oil's Gulfstream V, tail number N540M, was tracked flying from Indianapolis International Airport to South Bend International Airport on June 26, 2026, a short 27-minute hop at a low altitude of just under 10,000 feet.

If Marathon Oil was aboard, the timing would align with a significant energy policy development in Indiana this week. The Trump administration renewed an emergency order for the third time, mandating that two aging Indiana coal plants — the F.B. Culley and R.M. Schahfer generating stations — remain operational through September 19, 2026, per a report from Indiana Public Radio. The Department of Energy invoked the Federal Power Act to block the plants' retirement, citing reliability concerns, though critics including the Sierra Club have challenged the move in court as unnecessary.

This flight follows a pattern of recent movements across the Midwest, including stops in Wisconsin, Ohio, and Illinois over the past several days. Marathon Oil, now part of ConocoPhillips following the November 2024 merger, maintains its headquarters in Houston but has operational interests across the region, making the trip to South Bend — near the heart of the coal plant controversy — a plausible business stop amid the ongoing energy policy debate.