Divorce, Southern Style

Maybe it’s a Texas-Oklahoma thing, but the disintegration of a planned joint venture between Ultramar Diamond Shamrock Corp. of San Antonio and Phillips Petroleum Co. of Bartlesville, Okla., announced late Friday, is beginning to sound like the many storied dust-ups between the two states.

The two oil companies said Friday that they could not reach a final agreement on previously announced plans to create a joint venture called Diamond 66. The company would have been the nation’s fourth-largest seller of gasoline, with $20 billion in annual revenue and 12,000 convenience stores and gas stations in 36 states, including California.

The Ultramar folks complained to Bloomberg News on Monday that it was all Phillips’ fault: It supposedly wanted more money and more control of the venture than previously discussed. A Phillips spokesman declined to fire back, noting only that “both companies said in our statements that we mutually agreed to terminate the five-month negotiations.”

Ultramar shares fell $1.19 to close at $19.94 while Phillips rose 63 cents to close at $44.81. Both trade on the New York Stock Exchange.