ENERGY

Phillips, Conoco End Talks: The two oil companies said negotiations over creating the second-largest U.S. chain of gas stations stopped after the companies couldn’t agree on “significant commercial issues” in the venture, which also would have created the first alliance of major refiners in the U.S. Both declined to detail the disputes that ended the talks. Phillips Petroleum Co. and Conoco Inc. began exclusive talks in early March on a possible combination of their U.S. refining, marketing and pipeline operations. Such a combination would have included 12,325 service stations, second only to Citgo Petroleum Corp.’s 13,116 in the U.S. The alliance would have created the sixth-largest U.S. refiner.