"I'm as sick as anybody about what's going on in the Gulf," Englefield told the newspaper. "We're under contract with BP, and BP has been a very reliable supplier. Now, all of a sudden, [image-nocss] the BP sign is like a skull and crossbones."
Englefield Oil, an independently owned and operated gas station operator based in Heath, bought 43 BP stations in central Ohio in 2009. The company operates 127 stations and sells BP fuel at most of its more than 100 Duke & Duchess locations, said the report.
Englefield, with annual sales of more than $300 million, has about 1,600 employees.
Protests against BP at Englefield stations have been limited so far the report said. The owner of a BP gas station in Columbus, Ohio, reported oil thrown on the BP sign and a dead animal carcass covered in oil near the front door, the paper reported.
A planned protest Wednesday in Columbus did not occur, possibly because rainy weather kept protesters away, the Newark Advocate speculated.
"They aren't hurting BP at all," Englefield said of those boycotting BP stations. "Most are owned by independent businessmen like myself."
BP supplies about 30 % to 40 % of all gasoline in Ohio, Englefield estimated, including stations without the BP logo.
The boycotts and protests have had some affect on Englefield, said the report, but its Licking County stations have not been adversely affected.
"Overall, our volume has been hurt some," Englefield told the paper. "It's not a lot, but something we're going to go back to BP and ask for reimbursement, because it's not our doing."
Employees at Englefield stations occasionally have endured verbal harassment from angry motorists, first because of rising gasoline prices and now because of the oil spill, Englefield added.
"I wish I had an alternate idea for them," he said.
F.W. Englefield III, Ben's father, started Englefield Oil Co. in 1961 with three service stations and an office in the basement of his home, the report said. In addition to its Duke & Duchess Shoppes and gas stations, Englefield operates 23 ampm stores, eight petroleum and lube oil facilities, 15 Pacific Pride unattended fueling locations, four bulk lubricant warehouses and five Taco Bell Express sites.
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