CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – "As an independent marketer, we cannot continue to sell gasoline at or below our cost," W. Garnett Ladd III told reporter Wyatt Andrews in a nationally televised report on hypermarket gasoline sales during last night's edition of CBS Evening News. In its "Eye on America" segment, CBS took on the issue of low-priced gasoline sales by large chain stores, calling it American consumers' "success story of the year."

For Ladd, the trend is anything but. In a recent interview with CSP Daily News Ladd lamented the shuttering of his 6 retail outlets and the closure of a 77-year-old, third-generation family business. "It's not just the end of an era for us, as we would have been in business for 77 years," Ladd said, "but as many petroleum retailers like us are finding, it's the end of a lifestyle. When I first came into the business, we had 10 other jobbers in Clarksville. None of us were making a killing, but we were making a living and employing people. Now the playing field has changed."

CARACAS, Venezuela -- Citgo Petroleum Corp. parent and Venezuelan government-owned Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) is seeking to renegotiate crude supply contracts with Citgo as part of government efforts to increase oil revenues.

“We are trying to change the structure of the supply agreements to maximize returns from the crude sales,” a spokesman for the Ministry of Energy and Mines told Reuters Tuesday. Under the new supply terms, Citgo would pay market prices for heavy sour oil purchased from PDVSA, rather than the discounted prices the subsidiary currently enjoys. The new contracts would make it easier for the government to access oil money and increase profits to Venezuela, the world's No. 4 oil exporter, from the U.S. downstream operation, the spokesman added.