7-Eleven Dumps Venezuela Owned Citgo Gasoline

7-Eleven is dropping Venezuela-backed Citgo as its gasoline supplier at more than 2,100 locations and switching to its own brand of fuel. The convenience store operator says it will buy fuel from several distributors, including Tower Energy Group, Sinclair Oil and Frontier Oil, all of which are based in the US. The chain says its 20-year contract with Citgo ends next week. About 2,100 of the chain's 53-hundred US stores sell gasoline.Citgo is a subsidiary of Venezuela's state-owned oil company, which became a public-relations issue for 7-Eleven because of comments by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez about President Bush. Chavez has called Mr. Bush the devil and an alcoholic. The US government has warned that Chavez is a destabilizing force in Latin America. "Certainly Chavez's position and statements over the past year or so didn't tempt us to stay with Citgo,” a company spokesman said. A Citgo spokesman declined to comment on whether Chavez's comments had a bearing on 7-Eleven's change in suppliers, calling the break "a mutual agreement of the two companies."