Oil firms shrug off boycott email

Oil companies say they are unconcerned by a widely circulating email calling on people not to buy petrol today.

The email, titled "Up the prices will ya!", says if two million motorists refrain from filling their tanks, oil companies will lose $90 million.

"It has been calculated that if everyone in New Zealand did not purchase a drop of petrol for one day at all the same time the oil companies could possibly choke on their stockpiles," it says.

But oil companies reject the suggestion that they have more fuel than is needed to meet demand.

"We do not have an excess of stock in New Zealand," said BP spokeswoman Diana Stretch.

Gull New Zealand said the email was wrong to suggest people could depress oil company profits by not buying petrol for a day.

"If they don't buy it on the 5th [of September], they'll buy it on the 6th," said regional manager Geoff Gillot.

Caltex brand manager John Kerr expressed the same sentiment, saying oil companies would make up lost sales later in the week if people were not to fill their cars today.

Consumers' Institute chief executive David Russell said the email had been doing the rounds for some time. He said it was conjecture that the country had more oil than it needed.