According to the latest government estimates, BP may be spilling 60,000 barrels — or 2.52 million gallons — of oil every day in the Gulf, and possibly more. As Americans get their minds around that mind-boggling figure and the resulting damage, the more many are avoiding buying gas at stations under the BP banner.
The impulse to boycott BP stations is understandable. Some drivers feel that buying gasoline from a station with the BP logo supports the company, when they really want to send a message of condemnation for the spill and the reckless BP operations that caused it. So sales at BP stations are down 20 percent.
Ironically, such a boycott mainly hurts the thousands of business owners who have bought their stations from BP. In fact, BP decided several years ago to shed its stations and focus on drilling and refining. It now owns barely a handful of the 11,000 stations that operate under its logo. Most are owned by businesses — some large, some family-owned.
Thus BP gains little, if anything, from most of these stations. Their owners may or may not carry gasoline that comes from BP wells, or that has been refined, stored or treated by BP. Most gasoline, for example, comes from refineries where gasoline is made from oil delivered to them by a range of oil companies. And BP may — or may not — add its brand of additives to the gasoline that is delivered to gasoline stations from massive refineries.
On the other hand, motorists who buy their oil at other independent or chain-store service stations, The New York Times business page has reported, may well be buying gasoline that comes directly from BP.