Local BP stations brace for backlash from oil spill

George Diggs Jr. and his wife have owned their BP gasoline station on Cedar Road in Chesapeake for 11 years.

They hope that means something to consumers who are considering a boycott of BP gas in response to the ongoing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. It's not the fault of the independent station owners, they said, but they're the ones who would suffer most from a boycott.

"Hopefully, people will understand," Diggs said. "We could lose our whole financial life, basically. If everybody stopped buying gas here, we would be bankrupt pretty quickly."

Consumers who choose to stop buying BP gas in response to the spill won't punish the oil company but their own neighbors, said Jeff Miller, president of Miller Oil Co., which owns 16 BP stations and supplies BP gas wholesale to about 50 other small operators. Small groups have held protests at two BP stations, said Keith Miller, Jeff's brother and the company's senior vice president.

"Basically, we're caught in the crossfire," Jeff Miller said, adding that he understands that consumers want to take some action. "They want to vent their frustration. They want to vent their anger."

Most BP dealers haven't seen a change in sales, Miller said. They have begun to hear comments - customers saying they don't want to buy BP - and suspect a drop in business could follow.

Sales at the Diggses' station dipped 10 to 15 percent in the past 30 days from the prior month, but he doesn't know whether that's related to the oil spill, Diggs said. One man filling up told them that his wife had decided to stop buying BP gas, but he didn't switch.

"We do have a real loyal customer base here," Diggs said. "We're more like a neighborhood store."

Drivers typically won't veer from their usual gas-buying routine, said Ken Bernhardt, a marketing professor at Georgia State University who specializes in consumer behavior. Other factors override any strong feelings about an oil company.

"People generally have a favorite station, which is based on convenience and price," he said.

Once consumers travel away from their routine, Bernhardt said, they might think twice about their options.

A BP dealer near the Virginia Beach Oceanfront has seen sales slide 20 to 25 percent and suspects it's because of tourists avoiding BP, Keith Miller said. A BP station operator on the Outer Banks, fearing vacationers will drive past his pumps, told Miller he wanted to pull down his signs.

Tess Amoruso said she will no longer buy BP gas. The Virginia Beach artist has joined the "Hampton Roads, VA Against BP" group on social networking website Facebook and attended a vigil this week to highlight BP's responsibility for the environmental damage caused by the spill.

"I usually go to wherever I see the best price," said Amoruso, 50. Her children, age 17 and 20, persuaded her to reconsider her gas choice, she said. "It's the little bit of power that we, as individuals, have - to vote with our feet."

Consumers who boycott BP stations and visit nonbranded stores such as Wawa, 7-Eleven and Farm Fresh could still end up buying BP gasoline.

Gas stations that carry no specific brand typically buy a mix of fuel based on the lowest prices at that time, so their customers don't know what gas they're getting. If drivers stop filling up under the BP sign, the BP gas will flow into that larger pool and get sold through other stations.

BP had a limited presence in most of Hampton Roads until it bought Amoco in 1998. The Diggses and many other local station owners started with Amoco and inherited BP, Jeff Miller said.

"We didn't pick BP," Diggs said.

Even if BP station owners wanted to remove the company's green-flowered logo above their shops, they couldn't get out of their contracts without paying a price, Miller said.

They would owe BP a few cents per gallon for the gas they use over the rest of their contracts, most of which last 10 to 15 years, even while they pay another company for the fuel, Diggs said.

BP station owners serve as the public face of the company and must protect its image by maintaining their stores and signs, Miller said. In exchange, they draw customers who have an affinity for that brand.

"Up to this point, it has always been a positive," he said. "That's why you do it."

Carolyn Shapiro, (757) 446-2270, carolyn.shapiro@pilotonline.com