BY CHELYEN DAVIS

Protests and calls for boycotts of BP gas seem to be on the rise, as oil continues to pour into the Gulf.

This week a group of activists protested outside a BP gas station in Richmond. And Facebook is awash with pages calling on people to boycott BP, with the largest one boasting more than 430,000 supporters as of midweek.

But gas station owners in the Fredericksburg area say they haven't seen evidence of boycotts, and that boycotting stations would hurt small-business owners, not BP.

Customers may talk about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, said a clerk at a BP station on Plank Road, but "they're not blaming us."

Chester-based Uppy's Convenience Stores Inc. owns a BP-branded station on State Route 3 in Spotsylvania County as well as others in the Richmond area. Sales have stayed steady since the oil spill, and there haven't been any protesters, said John Cary, director of retail operations for Uppy's.

Cary said people seem to understand that most stations are owned and operated independently, despite carrying the name and brand of the energy company whose gas is sold there.

"Individual businessmen run these shops," he said, adding that boycotting them because of the brand of gasoline they sell is only "hurting the little guy."

Most gas stations in Virginia are not owned by the oil companies, such as BP or Exxon, said Michael O'Connor, president of the Virginia Petroleum, Convenience and Grocery Association.

They once were, but selling gasoline to consumers is not the most profitable part of owning an oil company.

O'Connor said major oil companies have exited the business of operating retail gas pumps because of its limited profitability.

Instead, the oil companies sold stations off to dealers and distributors, who are now the ones who have to worry about complying with liquor laws, tobacco laws, environmental compliance and so on, while the oil companies focus on exploration and refining, where, O'Connor said, they make the bulk of their profits.

Now, if you see a station that's flying the flag of an oil company--a BP station or a Shell station--it simply means that station buys its gas from that company.