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This article is about the energy company. For other uses, see BP (disambiguation).

BP p.l.c.

Headquarters in St James’s, Westminster, London
Formerly	The British Petroleum Company p.l.c (1909–1998) BP Amoco p.l.c (1998–2001)
Type	Public limited company
Traded as	LSE: BP. FWB: BPE NYSE: BP FTSE 100 component (BP.)
ISIN	GB0007980591
Industry	Oil and gas
Predecessors	Anglo-Persian Oil Company Castrol Standard Oil Standard Oil of Ohio Standard Oil of Indiana ARCO Amoco
Founded	14 April 1909; 114 years ago
Founders	William Knox D’Arcy Charles Greenway (for the Anglo-Persian Oil Company branch)
Headquarters	London, England, UK
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Helge Lund (Chairman) Murray Auchincloss (CEO)
Products	Petroleum Natural gas Motor fuels Aviation fuels
Production output	3.7 Mbbl/d (590×103 m3/d) of BOE (2018)[1]
Brands	Amoco Aral ARCO BP BP Connect Castrol Jio-bp
Services	Service stations
Revenue	US$241.39 billion (2022)[2]
Operating income	US$18.04 billion (2022)[2]
Net income	US$(1.36) billion (2022)[2]
Total assets	US$288.12 billion (2022)[2]
Total equity	US$82.99 billion (2022)[2]
Number of employees	70,000 (2023)[3]
Website	bp.com

BP p.l.c. (formerly The British Petroleum Company p.l.c and BP Amoco p.l.c) is a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, England. It is one of the oil and gas «supermajors» and one of the world’s largest companies measured by revenues and profits.^[4] It is a vertically integrated company operating in all areas of the oil and gas industry, including exploration and extraction, refining, distribution and marketing, power generation, and trading.

BP’s origins date back to the founding of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company in 1909, established as a subsidiary of Burmah Oil Company to exploit oil discoveries in Iran. In 1935, it became the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company and in 1954, adopted the name British Petroleum.^[5][6] In 1959, the company expanded beyond the Middle East to Alaska. British Petroleum acquired majority control of Standard Oil of Ohio in 1978. Formerly majority state-owned, the British government privatised the company in stages between 1979 and 1987. British Petroleum merged with Amoco in 1998, becoming BP Amoco plc, and acquired ARCO and Burmah Castrol in 2000 and Aral AG in 2002. The company’s name was shortened to BP p.l.c. in 2001.

From 2003 to 2013, BP was a partner in the TNK-BP joint venture in Russia, and as of December 2022 holds a nearly 20% stake in Rosneft — accounting for a third of BP’s total production.^[7] BP had earlier promised to divest the Rosneft holdings but was unable to find a buyer; instead BP wrote the assets off their books in a $25 billion non-cash charge. ^[8]

As of 31 December 2018, BP had operations in nearly 80 countries, produced around 3.7 million barrels per day (590,000 m³/d) of oil equivalent, and had total proven reserves of 19.945 billion barrels (3.1710×10⁹ m³) of oil equivalent.^[1] The company has around 18,700 service stations worldwide,^[1] which it operates under the BP brand (worldwide) and under the Amoco brand (in the United States) and the Aral brand (in Germany).^[9] Its largest division is BP America in the United States. BP is the fourth-largest investor-owned oil company in the world by 2021 revenues (after ExxonMobil, Shell, and TotalEnergies).^[10] BP had a market capitalisation of US$98.36 billion as of 15 September 2022, placing it 122nd in the world,^[11][12] and its Fortune Global 500 rank was 35th in 2022 with revenues of US$164.2 billion.^[13] The company trades on the London Stock Exchange (where it is a member of the FTSE 100 Index), the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, and the New York Stock Exchange.

From 1988 to 2015, BP was responsible for 1.53% of global industrial greenhouse gas emissions.^[14] BP has been directly involved in several major environmental and safety incidents. Among them were the 2005 Texas City Refinery explosion, which caused the death of 15 workers and which resulted in a record-setting OSHA fine; Britain’s largest oil spill, the wreck of Torrey Canyon in 1967; and the 2006 Prudhoe Bay oil spill, the largest oil spill on Alaska’s North Slope, which resulted in a US$25 million civil penalty, the largest per-barrel penalty at that time for an oil spill.^[15] BP’s worst environmental catastrophe was the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the largest accidental release of oil into marine waters in history, which leaked about 4.9 million barrels (210 million US gal; 780,000 m³) of oil,^[16] causing severe environmental, human health, and economic consequences^[17] and serious legal and public relations repercussions for BP, eventually paying more than $4.5 billion in fines and penalties, and an additional $18.7 billion in Clean Water Act-related penalties and other claims, the largest criminal resolution in US history.^{[18][19][20][21]} Altogether, the oil spill cost the company more than $65 billion.^[22][23]

History[edit]

1909 to 1954[edit]

In May 1908, a group of British geologists discovered a large amount of oil at Masjed Soleyman located in the Khuzestan Province in the southwest of Persia (Iran). It was the first commercially significant find of oil in the Middle East. William Knox D’Arcy, by contract with Ali-Qoli Khan Bakhtiari, obtained permission to explore for oil for the first time in the Middle East,^[24] an event which changed the history of the entire region. The oil discovery led to petrochemical industry development and also the establishment of industries that strongly depended on oil. On 14 April 1909, the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC) was incorporated as a subsidiary of Burmah Oil Company. Some of the shares were sold to the public.^[25] The first chairman and minority shareholder of the company became Lord Strathcona.^[26]

Immediately after establishing the company, the British government asked Percy Cox, British resident to Bushehr, to negotiate an agreement with Sheikh Khaz’al Ibn Jabir of Arabistan for APOC to obtain a site on Abadan Island for a refinery, depot, storage tanks, and other operations. The refinery was built and began operating in 1912.^[24] In 1914, the British government acquired a controlling interest (50.0025%) in the company, at the urging of Winston Churchill, the then First Lord of the Admiralty, and the British navy quickly switched from coal to oil for the majority of their war ships.^[26][27][28] APOC also signed a 30-year contract with the British Admiralty for supplying oil for the Royal Navy at the fixed price.^[29] In 1915, APOC established its shipping subsidiary the British Tanker Company and in 1916, it acquired the British Petroleum Company which was a marketing arm of the German Europäische Petroleum Union in Britain.^[26] In 1919, the company became a shale-oil producer by establishing a subsidiary named Scottish Oils which merged remaining Scottish oil-shale industries.^{[30][31][32][33]}

After World War I, APOC started marketing its products in Continental Europe and acquired stakes in the local marketing companies in several European countries. Refineries were built in Llandarcy in Wales (the first refinery in the United Kingdom) and Grangemouth in Scotland. It also acquired the controlling stake in the Courchelettes refinery in France and formed, in conjunction with the Government of Australia, a partnership named Commonwealth Oil Refineries, which built the Australian’s first refinery in Laverton, Victoria.^[26] In 1923, Burmah employed Winston Churchill as a paid consultant to lobby the British government to allow APOC have exclusive rights to Persian oil resources, which were subsequently granted by the Iranian monarchy.^[34]

APOC and the Armenian businessman Calouste Gulbenkian were the driving forces behind the creation of Turkish Petroleum Company (TPC) in 1912, to explore oil in Mesopotamia (now Iraq); and by 1914, APOC held 50% of TPC shares.^[35] In 1925, TPC received concession in the Mesopotamian oil resources from the Iraqi government under British mandate. TPC finally struck oil in Iraq on 14 October 1927. By 1928, the APOC’s shareholding in TPC, which by now was named Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC), was reduced to 23.75%; as the result of the changing geopolitics post Ottoman empire break-up, and the Red Line Agreement.^[36] Relations were generally cordial between the pro-west Hashemite Monarchy (1932–58) in Iraq and IPC, in spite of disputes centred on Iraq’s wish for greater involvement and more royalties. During the 1928–68 time period, IPC monopolised oil exploration inside the Red Line; excluding Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.^[37][38]

In 1927, Burmah Oil and Royal Dutch Shell formed the joint marketing company Burmah-Shell. In 1928, APOC and Shell formed the Consolidated Petroleum Company for sale and marketing in Cyprus, South Africa and Ceylon, which in 1932 followed by a joint marketing company Shell-Mex and BP in the United Kingdom.^[28][39] In 1937, AIOC and Shell formed the Shell/D’Arcy Exploration Partners partnership to explore for oil in Nigeria. The partnership was equally owned but operated by Shell. It was later replaced by Shell-D’Arcy Petroleum Development Company and Shell-BP Petroleum Development Company (now Shell Petroleum Development Company).^[40]

In 1934, APOC and Gulf Oil founded the Kuwait Oil Company as an equally owned partnership. The oil concession rights were awarded to the company on 23 December 1934 and the company started drilling operations in 1936.^[41][42] In 1935, Rezā Shāh requested the international community to refer to Persia as ‘Iran’, which was reflected in the name change of APOC to the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC).^[43]

In 1937, Iraq Petroleum Company, 23.75% owned by BP,^[44] signed an oil concession agreement with the Sultan of Muscat that covers the entire region of the Sultanate, which was in fact limited to the coastal area of present-day Oman. After several years of failure to discover oil in the Sultanate’s region, IPC presumed that oil was more likely to be found in the interior region of Oman, which was part of the Imamate of Oman. IPC offered financial support to raise an armed force that would assist the Sultanate in occupying the interior region of Oman. Later, in 1954, the Sultan of Muscat, backed by the British government and the financial aid he received from IPC, started occupying regions within the interior of Oman, which led to the outbreak of Jebel Akhdar War that lasted for more than 5 years.^[45]

In 1947, British Petroleum Chemicals was incorporated as a joint venture of AIOC and The Distillers Company. In 1956, the company was renamed British Hydrocarbon Chemicals.^[46]

Following World War II, nationalistic sentiments were on the rise in the Middle East; most notable being Iranian nationalism, and Arab Nationalism. In Iran, the AIOC and the pro-western Iranian government led by Prime Minister Ali Razmara resisted nationalist calls to revise AIOC’s concession terms in Iran’s favour. In March 1951, Razmara was assassinated and Mohammed Mossadeq, a nationalist, was elected as the new prime minister by the Majlis of Iran (parliament).^[47] In April 1951, the Iranian government nationalised the Iranian oil industry by unanimous vote, and the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) was formed, displacing the AIOC.^[48][49] The AIOC withdrew its management from Iran, and Britain organised an effective worldwide embargo of Iranian oil. The British government, which owned the AIOC, contested the nationalisation at the International Court of Justice at The Hague, but its complaint was dismissed.^[50]

Prime Minister Churchill asked President Eisenhower for help in overthrowing Mossadeq. The anti-Mossadeq plan was orchestrated under the code-name ‘Operation Ajax’ by CIA, and ‘Operation Boot’ by SIS (MI6). The CIA and the British helped stage a coup in August 1953, the 1953 Iranian coup d’état, which established pro-Western general Fazlollah Zahedi as the new PM, and greatly strengthened the political power of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The AIOC was able to return to Iran.^[51]

1954 to 1979[edit]

In 1954, the AIOC became the British Petroleum Company. After the 1953 Iranian coup d’état, Iranian Oil Participants Ltd (IOP), a holding company, was founded in October 1954, in London to bring Iranian oil back to the international market.^[52][53] British Petroleum was a founding member of this company with 40% stake.^[47][52] IOP operated and managed oil facilities in Iran on behalf of NIOC.^[52][53] Similar to the Saudi-Aramco «50/50» agreement of 1950,^[54] the consortium agreed to share profits on a 50–50 basis with Iran, «but not to open its books to Iranian auditors or to allow Iranians onto its board of directors.»^[55]

In 1953, British Petroleum entered the Canadian market through the purchase of a minority stake in Calgary-based Triad Oil Company, and expanded further to Alaska in 1959, resulting discovery of oil at Prudhoe Bay in 1969.^[28][56] In 1956, its subsidiary D’Arcy Exploration Co. (Africa) Ltd. has been granted four oil concessions in Libya.^[57] In 1962, Scottish Oils ceased oil-shale operations.^[33] In 1965, it was the first company to strike oil in the North Sea.^[58] In 1969, BP entered the United States by acquiring the East Coast refining and marketing assets of Sinclair Oil Corporation.^[59] The Canadian holding company of British Petroleum was renamed BP Canada in 1969; and in 1971, it acquired 97.8% stake of Supertest Petroleum.^[60]

By the 1960s, British Petroleum had developed a reputation for taking on the riskiest ventures. It earned the company massive profits; it also earned them the worst safety record in the industry. In 1967, the giant oil tanker Torrey Canyon foundered off the English coast. Over 32 million US gallons (760,000 bbl; 120,000 m³) of crude oil was spilled into the Atlantic and onto the beaches of Cornwall and Brittany, causing Britain’s worst-ever oil spill.^[61] The ship was owned by the Bahamas-based Barracuda Tanker Corporation and was flying the flag of Liberia, a well-known flag of convenience, but was being chartered by British Petroleum.^[61] The ship was bombed by RAF jet bombers in an effort to break up the ship and burn off the leaking oil, but this failed to destroy the oil slick.^[62]

In 1967, BP acquired chemical and plastics assets of The Distillers Company which were merged with British Hydrocarbon Chemicals to form BP Chemicals.^[63]

The company’s oil assets were nationalised in Libya in 1971, in Kuwait in 1975, and in Nigeria in 1979.^[42][49][64] In Iraq, IPC ceased its operations after it was nationalised by the Ba’athist Iraqi government in June 1972, although legally Iraq Petroleum Company still remains in existence but as a dormant company,^[65] and one of its associated companies —Abu Dhabi Petroleum Company (ADPC), formerly Petroleum Development (Trucial Coast) Ltd – also continues with the original shareholding intact.^[66][67]

The intensified power struggle between oil companies and host governments in Middle East, along with the oil price shocks that followed the 1973 oil crisis meant British Petroleum lost most of its direct access to crude oil supplies produced in countries that belonged to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), and prompted it to diversify its operations beyond the heavily Middle East dependent oil production. In 1976, BP and Shell de-merged their marketing operations in the United Kingdom by dividing Shell-Mex and BP. In 1978, the company acquired a controlling interest in Standard Oil of Ohio (Sohio).^[68]

In Iran, British Petroleum continued to operate until the Islamic Revolution in 1979. The new regime of Ayatollah Khomeini nationalised all of the company’s assets in Iran without compensation: as a result, BP lost 40% of its global crude oil supplies.^[69]

In 1970–1980s, BP diversified into coal, minerals and nutrition businesses which all were divested later.^[28]

1979 to 1997[edit]

The British government sold 80 million shares of BP at $7.58 in 1979, as part of Thatcher-era privatisation. This sale represented slightly more than 5% of BP’s total shares and reduced the government’s ownership of the company to 46%.^[70] On 19 October 1987, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher authorised the sale of an additional GBP7.5 billion ($12.2 billion) of BP shares at 333 pence, representing the government’s remaining 31% stake in the company.^[71][72]

In November 1987, the Kuwait Investment Office purchased a 10.06% interest in BP, becoming the largest institutional shareholder.^[73] The following May, the KIO purchased additional shares, bringing their ownership to 21.6%.^[74] This raised concerns within BP that operations in the United States, BP’s primary country of operations, would suffer. In October 1988, the British Department of Trade and Industry required the KIO to reduce its shares to 9.6% within 12 months.^[75]

Peter Walters was the company chairman from 1981 to 1990.^[76] During his period as chairman he reduced the company’s refining capacity in Europe.^[76] In 1982, the downstream assets of BP Canada were sold to Petro Canada. In 1984, Standard Oil of California was renamed the Chevron Corporation; it bought Gulf Oil—the largest merger in history at that time.^[77] To meet anti-trust regulations, Chevron divested many of Gulf’s operating subsidiaries, and sold some Gulf stations and a refinery in the eastern United States to British Petroleum and Cumberland Farms in 1985.^[78] In 1987, British Petroleum negotiated the acquisition of Britoil^[79] and the remaining publicly traded shares of Standard Oil of Ohio.^[68] At the same year it was listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange where its share were traded until delisting in 2008.^[80]

Walters was replaced by Robert Horton in 1990. Horton carried out a major corporate downsizing exercise, removing various tiers of management at the head office.^[81] In 1992, British Petroleum sold off its 57% stake in BP Canada (upstream operations), which was renamed as Talisman Energy.^[82] John Browne, who had joined BP in 1966 and rose through the ranks to join the board as managing director in 1991, was appointed group chief executive in 1995.^[83]

In 1981, British Petroleum entered into the solar technology sector by acquiring 50% of Lucas Energy Systems, a company which became Lucas BP Solar Systems, and later BP Solar. The company was a manufacturer and installer of photovoltaic solar cells. It became wholly owned by British Petroleum in the mid-1980s.^[84]

British Petroleum entered the Russian market in 1990 and opened its first service station in Moscow in 1996.^[85] In 1997, it acquired a 10% stake for $571 million in the Russian oil company Sidanco, which later became a part of TNK-BP.^[86][85] Sidanco was run by Russian oligarch Vladimir Potanin who obtained Sidanco through the controversial loans-for-shares privatization scheme.^[85] In 2003, BP invested $8 billion into a joint venture with Russian oligarch Mikhail Fridman’s TNK.^[85]

In 1992, the company entered the Azerbaijani market. In 1994, it signed the production sharing agreement for the Azeri–Chirag–Guneshli oil project and in 1995 for the Shah Deniz gas field development.^[87]

1998 to 2009[edit]

Under John Browne, British Petroleum acquired other oil companies, transforming BP into the third largest oil company in the world. British Petroleum merged with Amoco (formerly Standard Oil of Indiana) in December 1998, becoming BP Amoco plc.^[88][89] Most Amoco stations in the United States were converted to BP’s brand and corporate identity. In 2000, BP Amoco acquired Atlantic Richfield Co. (ARCO) and Burmah Castrol.^{[90][91][92][93]} Together with the acquisition of ARCO in 2000, BP became owner of a 33.5% stake in the Olympic Pipeline. Later that year, BP became an operator of the pipeline and increased its stake up to 62.5%.^[94][95]

As part of the merger’s brand awareness, the company helped the Tate Modern gallery of British Art launch RePresenting Britain 1500–2000.^[96] In 2001, in response to negative press on British Petroleum’s poor safety standards, the company adopted a green sunburst logo and rebranded itself as BP («Beyond Petroleum») plc.^[89]

In the beginning of the 2000s, BP became the leading partner (and later operator) of the Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan pipeline project which opened a new oil transportation route from the Caspian region.^[97] In 2002, BP acquired the majority of Veba Öl AG, a subsidiary of VEBA AG, and subsequently rebranded its existing stations in Germany to the Aral name.^[98] As part of the deal, BP acquired also the Veba Öl’s stake in Ruhr Öl joint venture. Ruhr Öl was dissolved in 2016.^[99]

On 1 September 2003, BP and a group of Russian billionaires, known as AAR (Alfa–Access–Renova), announced the creation of a strategic partnership to jointly hold their oil assets in Russia and Ukraine. As a result, TNK-ВР was created.^[100]

In 2004, BP’s olefins and derivatives business was moved into a separate entity which was sold to Ineos in 2005.^[101][102] In 2007, BP sold its corporate-owned convenience stores, typically known as «BP Connect», to local franchisees and jobbers.^[103]

On 23 March 2005, 15 workers were killed and more than 170 injured in the Texas City Refinery explosion. To save money, major upgrades to the 1934 refinery had been postponed.^[104] Browne pledged to prevent another catastrophe. Three months later, ‘Thunder Horse PDQ’, BP’s giant new production platform in the Gulf of Mexico, nearly sank during a hurricane. In their rush to finish the $1 billion platform, workers had installed a valve backwards, allowing the ballast tanks to flood. Inspections revealed other shoddy work. Repairs costing hundreds of millions would keep Thunder Horse out of commission for three years.^[104]

Lord Browne resigned from BP on 1 May 2007. The head of exploration and production Tony Hayward became the new chief executive.^[105] In 2009, Hayward shifted emphasis from Lord Browne’s focus on alternative energy, announcing that safety would henceforth be the company’s «number one priority».^[106]

In 2007, BP formed with AB Sugar and DuPont a joint venture Vivergo Fuels which opened a bioethanol plant in Saltend near Hull, United Kingdom in December 2012.^[107] Together with DuPont, BP formed a biobutanol joint venture Butamax by acquiring biobutan technology company Biobutanol LLC in 2009.^[108]

In 2009, BP obtained a production contract to develop the supergiant Rumaila field with joint venture partner CNPC.^[109][110]

2010 to present[edit]

In January 2010, Carl-Henric Svanberg became chairman of BP board of directors.^[111]

On 20 April 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, a major industrial accident, happened.^[16] Consequently, Bob Dudley replaced Tony Hayward as the company’s CEO, serving from October 2010 to February 2020.^[112][113] BP announced a divestment program to sell about $38 billion worth of non-core assets to compensate its liabilities related to the accident.^[114][115] In July 2010, BP sold its natural gas activities in Alberta and British Columbia, Canada, to Apache Corporation.^[116] It sold its stake in the Petroperijá and Boquerón fields in Venezuela and in the Lan Tay and Lan Do fields, the Nam Con Son pipeline and terminal, and the Phu My 3 power plant in Vietnam to TNK-BP,^[117][118] forecourts and supply businesses in Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Tanzania and Malawi to Puma Energy,^[119] the Wytch Farm onshore oilfield in Dorset and a package of North Sea gas assets to Perenco,^[120] natural-gas liquids business in Canada to Plains All American Pipeline LP,^[121] natural gas assets in Kansas to Linn Energy,^[122] Carson Refinery in Southern California and its ARCO retail network to Tesoro, Sunray and Hemphill gas processing plants in Texas, together with their associated gas gathering system, to Eagle Rock Energy Partners,^{[123][124][125]} the Texas City Refinery and associated assets to Marathon Petroleum,^[126][127] the Gulf of Mexico located Marlin, Dorado, King, Horn Mountain, and Holstein fields as also its stake in non-operated Diana Hoover and Ram Powell fields to Plains Exploration & Production,^[114] non-operating stake in the Draugen oil field to Norske Shell,^[128] and the UK’s liquefied petroleum gas distribution business to DCC.^[129] In November 2012, the U.S. Government temporarily banned BP from bidding any new federal contracts. The ban was conditionally lifted in March 2014.^[130]

In February 2011, BP formed a partnership with Reliance Industries, taking a 30% stake in a new Indian joint-venture for an initial payment of $7.2 billion.^[131] In September 2012, BP sold its subsidiary BP Chemicals (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., an operator of the Kuantan purified terephthalic acid (PTA) plant in Malaysia, to Reliance Industries for $230 million.^[132] In October 2012, BP sold its stake in TNK-BP to Rosneft for $12.3 billion in cash and 18.5% of Rosneft’s stock.^[133][134] The deal was completed on 21 March 2013.^[135] In 2012, BP acquired an acreage in the Utica Shale but these developments plans were cancelled in 2014.^[136]

In 2011–2015, BP cut down its alternative energy business. The company announced its departure from the solar energy market in December 2011 by closing its solar power business, BP Solar.^[137] In 2012, BP shut down the BP Biofuels Highlands project which was developed since 2008 to make cellulosic ethanol from emerging energy crops like switchgrass and from biomass.^[138][139] In 2015, BP decided to exit from other lignocellulosic ethanol businesses.^[140] It sold its stake in Vivergo to Associated British Foods.^[141] BP and DuPont also mothballed their joint biobutanol pilot plant in Saltend.^[142]

In June 2014, BP agreed to a deal worth around $20 billion to supply CNOOC with liquefied natural gas.^[143] In 2014, Statoil Fuel & Retail sold its aviation fuel business to BP. To ensure the approval of competition authorities, BP agreed to sell the former Statoil aviation fuel businesses in Copenhagen, Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö airports to World Fuel Services in 2015.^[144]

In 2016, BP sold its Decatur, Alabama, plant to Indorama Ventures, of Thailand.^[145] At the same year, its Norwegian daughter company BP Norge merged with Det Norske Oljeselskap to form Aker BP.^[146]

In April 2017, the company reached an agreement to sell its Forties pipeline system in the North Sea to Ineos for $250 million. The sale included terminals at Dalmeny and Kinneil, a site in Aberdeen, and the Forties Unity Platform.^[147] In 2017, the company floated its subsidiary BP Midstream Partners LP, a pipeline operator in the United States, at the New York Stock Exchange. In Argentina, BP and Bridas Corporation agreed to merge their interests in Pan American Energy and Axion Energy to form a jointly owned Pan American Energy Group.^[148]

In 2017, BP invested $200 million to acquire a 43% stake in the solar energy developer Lightsource Renewable Energy, a company which was renamed Lightsource BP.^[149][150] In March 2017, the company acquired Clean Energy’s biomethane business and assets, including its production sites and existing supply contracts.^[151] In April 2017, its subsidiary Butamax bought an isobutanol production company Nesika Energy.^[152]

In 2018, the company purchased BHP’s shale assets in Texas and Louisiana, including Petrohawk Energy, for $10.5 billion, which were integrated with its subsidiary BPX Energy.^[153] Also in 2018, BP bought a 16.5% interest in the Clair field in the UK from ConocoPhillips, increasing its share to 45.1%. BP paid £1.3 billion and gave to ConocoPhillips its 39.2% non-operated stake in the Kuparuk River Oil Field and satellite oil fields in Alaska.^[154] In December 2018, BP sold its wind assets in Texas.^[155]

In 2018, BP acquired Chargemaster, which operated the UK’s largest electric vehicle charging network.^[156] In 2019, BP and Didi Chuxing formed a joint venture to build out electric vehicle charging infrastructure in China. In September 2020, BP announced it will build out a rapid charging network in London for Uber.^[157]

In January 2019, BP discovered 1 billion barrels (160×10⁶ m³) oil at its Thunder Horse location in the Gulf of Mexico. The company also announced plans to spend $1.3 billion on a third phase of its Atlantis field near New Orleans.^[158]

Helge Lund succeeded Carl-Henric Svanberg on 1 January 2019 as chairman of BP Plc board of directors,^[159] and Bernard Looney succeeded Bob Dudley on 5 February 2020 as chief executive.^[160] Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, BP claimed that it would «accelerate the transition to a lower carbon economy and energy system» after announcing that the company had to write down $17.5 billion for the second quarter of 2020.^[161]

On 29 June 2020, BP sold its petrochemicals unit to Ineos for $5 billion. The business was focused on aromatics and acetyls. It had interests in 14 plants in Asia, Europe and the U.S., and achieved production of 9.7 million metric tons in 2019.^[162] On 30 June 2020, BP sold all its Alaska upstream operations and interests, including interests in Prudhoe Bay Oil Field, to Hilcorp for $5.6 billion.^[163][164] On 14 December 2020, it sold its 49% stake in the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System to Harvest Alaska.^[165][166]

In September 2020, BP formed a partnership with Equinor to develop offshore wind and announced it will acquire 50% non-operating stake in the Empire Wind off New York and Beacon Wind off Massachusetts offshore wind farms. The deal is expected to be completed at the first half of 2021.^[167] In December 2020, BP acquired a majority stake in Finite Carbon, the largest forest carbon offsets developer in the United States.^[168]

In response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, BP announced that it would sell its 19.75% stake in Rosneft, although no timeline was announced.^[169] At the time of BP’s decision, Rosneft’s activities accounted for around half of BP’s oil and gas reserves and a third of its production.^[170] BP’s decision came after the British government expressed concern about BP’s involvement in Russia.^[171][172] However, BP remained a Rosneft shareholder throughout the whole 2022 year, which caused some criticism from the Ukrainian president’s office.^[173]

In October 2022, BP announced that it would be acquiring Archaea Energy Inc., a renewable natural gas producer, for $4.1 billion.^[174] In December 2022, it was announced BP had completed the acquisition of Archaea Energy Inc. for $3.3 billion.^[175] In November 2022, the company announced a large increase in profit for the period from July to September due to the high fuel prices caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.^[176]

In February 2023, BP reported record annual profits, on a replacement cost basis, for the year 2022. On that basis, 2022 profits were more than double than in 2021, and they were also the biggest profits in the whole 114-year long history of BP.^[177]

Logo evolution[edit]

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Operations[edit]

As of 31 December 2018, BP had operations in 78 countries worldwide^[1] with the global headquarters in London, United Kingdom. BP operations are organized into three business segments, Upstream, Downstream, and renewables.^[178]

Since 1951, BP has annually published its Statistical Review of World Energy, which is considered an energy industry benchmark.^[179]

Operations by location[edit]

United Kingdom[edit]

BP has a major corporate campus in Sunbury-on-Thames which is home to around 3,500 employees and over 50 business units.^[180] Its North Sea operations are headquartered in Aberdeen, Scotland. BP’s trading functions are based at 20 Canada Square in Canary Wharf, London. BP has three major research and development centres in the UK.^[181]

As of 2020, and following the sale of its Andrew and Shearwater interests, BP’s operations were focussed in the Clair, Quad 204 and ETAP hubs.^[182] In 2011, the company announced that it is focusing its investment in the UK North Sea into four development projects including the Clair, Devenick, Schiehallion and Loyal, and Kinnoull oilfields.^[183] BP is the operator of the Clair oilfield, which has been appraised as the largest hydrocarbon resource in the UK.^[184]

There are 1,200 BP service stations in the UK.^[185][186] Since 2018 BP operates the UK’s largest electric vehicle charging network through its subsidiary BP Pulse (formerly Chargemaster).^[1]

In February 2020, BP announced a Joint Venture with EnBW to develop and operate 3GW off Offshore Wind capacity in the Crown Estate Leasing Round 4.^[187] This is BP’s first move into Britain’s Offshore wind market, however, BP currently provides a range of services to the Offshore Wind sector in the UK through its subsidiary ONYX InSight who provide a range of Predictive Maintenance and Engineering Consultancy services to the sector.^[188]

In February 2022, BP announced it acquired a 30% stake in the London-based company, Green Biofuels Ltd, a producer of renewable hydrogenated vegetable oil fuels that can be used as a direct replacement for diesel.^[189]

United States[edit]

The United States operations comprise nearly one-third of BP’s operations.^[190] BP employs approximately 14,000 people in the United States.^[191] In 2018, BP’s total production in the United States included 385,000 barrels per day (61,200 m³/d) of oil and 1.9 billion cubic feet per day (54 million cubic metres per day) of natural gas,^[192] and its refinery throughput was 703,000 barrels per day (111,800 m³/d).^[193]

BP’s major subsidiary in the United States is BP America, Inc. (formerly: Standard Oil Company (Ohio) and Sohio) based in Houston, Texas.^[194] BP Exploration & Production Inc., a 1996 established Houston-based subsidiary, is dealing with oil exploration and production.^[195] BP Corporation North America, Inc., provides petroleum refining services as also transportation fuel, heat and light energy.^[196] BP Products North America, Inc., a 1954 established Houston-based subsidiary, is engaged in the exploration, development, production, refining, and marketing of oil and natural gas.^[197] BP America Production Company, a New Mexico-based subsidiary, engages in oil and gas exploration and development.^[198] BP Energy Company, a Houston-based subsidiary, is a provider of natural gas, power, and risk management services to the industrial and utility sectors and a retail electric provider in Texas.^[199]

BP’s upstream activities in the Lower 48 states are conducted through Denver-based BPX Energy.^[153] It has a 7.5 billion barrels (1.19 billion cubic metres) resource base on 5.7 million acres (23,000 km²).^[200] It has shale positions in the Woodford, Oklahoma, Haynesville, Texas, and Eagle Ford, Texas shales.^[201][202] It has unconventional gas (shale gas or tight gas) stakes also in Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming, primarily in the San Juan Basin.^{[203][204][205]}

As of 2019, BP produced about 300,000 barrels per day (48,000 m³/d) of oil equivalent in the Gulf of Mexico.^[206] BP operates the Atlantis, Mad Dog, Na Kika, and Thunder Horse production platforms while holding interest in hubs operated by other companies.^[207][208] In April 2023, BP launched a new oil rig, the Argos, in the Gulf.^[209]

BP operates Whiting Refinery in Indiana^[210] and Cherry Point Refinery in Washington.^[210] It formerly co-owned and operated a refinery in Toledo, Ohio, with Husky Energy, but sold its stake in the refinery in February 2023 to Cenovus Energy.^{[211][212][213]}

BP operates nine onshore wind farms in six states, and held an interest in another in Hawaii with a net generating capacity of 1,679 MW.^[214] These wind farms include the Cedar Creek 2, Titan 1, Goshen North, Flat Ridge 1 and 2, Mehoopany, Fowler Ridge 1, 2 and 3 and Auwahi wind farms.^[215] It is also in process to acquire 50% non-operating stake in the Empire Wind off New York and Beacon Wind off Massachusetts offshore wind farms.^[167]

Other locations[edit]

In Egypt, BP produces approximately 15% of the country’s total oil production and 40% of its domestic gas.^[216] The company also has offshore gas developments in the East Nile Delta Mediterranean, and in the West Nile Delta,^[217] where the company has a joint investment of US$9 billion with Wintershall Dea to develop North Alexandria and West Mediterranean concessions offshore gas fields.^[218][219]

BP is active in offshore oil development in Angola, where it holds an interest in a total of nine oil exploration and production blocks covering more than 30,000 square kilometres (12,000 sq mi). This includes four blocks it acquired in December 2011 and an additional block that is operated by Brazilian national oil company, Petrobras, in which it holds a 40% stake.^[220]

BP has a stake in exploration of two blocks of offshore deepwater assets in the South China Sea.^[221][222]

In India, BP owns a 30% share of oil and gas assets operated by Reliance Industries, including exploration and production rights in more than 20 offshore oil and gas blocks, representing an investment of more than US$7 billion into oil and gas exploration in the country.^[223]

BP has major liquefied natural gas activities in Indonesia, where it operates the Tangguh LNG project, which began production in 2009 and has a capacity of 7.6 million tonnes of liquid natural gas per year.^[224] Also in that country, the company has invested in the exploration and development of coalbed methane.^[225]

BP operates in Iraq as part of the joint venture Rumaila Operating Organization in the Rumaila oil field, the world’s fourth largest oilfield, where it produced over 1 million barrels per day (160×10³ m³/d) of oil equivalent in 2011.^[226][227] A BBC investigation found in 2022 that waste-gas was being burned as close as 350 meters from people’s homes. A leaked report from Ministry of Health (Iraq) blamed air pollution for 20% rise in cancer in Basra between 2015 and 2018.^[228] The Iraqi Ministry of Health has banned its employees from speaking about the health damage.^[228] Iraqi Environment Minister Jassem al-Falahi later admitted that «pollution from oil production is the main reason for increases in local cancer rates.»^[229]

In Oman, BP currently has a 60% participation interest in Block 61. Block 61 is one of Oman’s largest gas blocks with a daily production capacity of 1.5 billion cubic feet of gas and more than 65,000 barrels of condensate. It covers around 3,950 km in central Oman and contains the largest tight gas development in the Middle East. On 1 February 2021, BP inked a deal to sell 20% participating interest in Block 61 to Thailand’s PTT Exploration and Production Public Company Ltd. (PTTEP) for a total of $2.6 billion. Upon closure of the sale, the BP will remain the block’s operator with a 40% interest.^[230][231]

BP operates the Kwinana refinery in Western Australia, which can process up to 146,000 barrels per day (23,200 m³/d) of crude oil and is the country’s largest refinery,^[232] supplying fuel to 80% of Western Australia.^[233] BP is a non-operating joint venture partner in the North West Shelf, which produces LNG, pipeline gas, condensate and oil.^[234] The NWS venture is Australia’s largest resource development and accounts for around one third of Australia’s oil and gas production.^[235][236]

BP operates the two largest oil and gas production projects in the Azerbaijan’s sector of the Caspian Sea, the Azeri–Chirag–Guneshli offshore oil fields, which supplies 80% of the country’s oil production, and the Shah Deniz gas field. It also and develops the Shafag-Asiman complex of offshore geological structures.^{[237][238][239]} In addition, it operates the Sangachal terminal and the Azerbaijan’s major export pipelines through Georgia such as Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan, Baku–Supsa and South Caucasus pipelines.^[240]

BP’s refining operations in continental Europe include Europe’s second-largest oil refinery, located in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, which can process up to 377,000 barrels (59,900 m³) of crude oil per day.^[241] Other facilities are located in Ingolstadt, Gelsenkirchen and Lingen, in Germany, as well as one in Castellón, Spain.^[242]

In addition to its offshore operations in the British zone of North Sea, BP has interests in the Norwegian section of the sea through its stake in Aker BP. As of December 2018, BP holds a 19.75% stake in Russia’s state-controlled oil company Rosneft.^{[133][135][243]}

Retail operations of motor vehicle fuels in Europe are present in the United Kingdom, France, Germany (through the Aral brand), the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Poland, Greece and Turkey.^{[244][245][246]}

BP’s Canadian operations are headquartered in Calgary and the company operates primarily in Newfoundland.^[247] It purchases crude oil for the company’s refineries in the United States, and has a 35 per cent stake in the undeveloped Bay du Nord project and three offshore exploration block in Newfoundland.^[248]

BP is the largest oil and gas producer in Trinidad and Tobago, where it holds more than 1,350 square kilometres (520 sq mi) of offshore assets and is the largest shareholder in Atlantic LNG, one of the largest LNG plants in Western Hemisphere.^[249]

In Brazil, BP holds stakes in offshore oil and gas exploration in the Barreirinhas, Ceará and Campos basins, in addition to onshore processing facilities.^[250] BP also operates biofuel production facilities in Brazil, including three cane sugar mills for ethanol production.^[251][252]

BP operated in Singapore until 2004 when it sold its retail network of 28 stations and LPG business to Singapore Petroleum Company (SPC). It also sold its 50% in SPC.^[253]

Exploration and production[edit]

BP Upstream’s activities include exploring for new oil and natural gas resources, developing access to such resources, and producing, transporting, storing and processing oil and natural gas.^[254][255] The activities in this area of operations take place in 25 countries worldwide. In 2018, BP produced around 3.7 million barrels per day (590×10³ m³/d) of oil equivalent,^[1] of which 2.191 million barrels per day (348.3×10³ m³/d) were liquids and 8.659 billion cubic feet per day (245.2 million cubic metres per day) was natural gas, and had total proved reserves of 19,945 million barrels (3,171.0×10⁶ m³) of oil equivalent, of which liquids accounted 11,456 million barrels (1,821.4×10⁶ m³) barrels and natural gas 49.239 trillion cubic feet (1.3943 trillion cubic metres).^[256] In addition to the conventional oil exploration and production, BP has a stake in the three oil sands projects in Canada.^[116][257]

BP expects its oil and gas production to fall by at least one million barrels a day by 2030, a 40% reduction on 2019 levels.^[258] The reduction excludes non-operated production and BP’s stake in Rosneft.^[259]

Refining and marketing[edit]

BP downstream’s activities include the refining, marketing, manufacturing, transportation, trading and supply of crude oil and petroleum products.^[254] Downstream is responsible for BP’s fuels and lubricants businesses, and has major operations located in Europe, North America and Asia.^[260] As of 2018, BP owned or had a share in 11 refineries.^[193]

BP, which employs about 1,800 people in oil trading and trades over 5 million barrels per day (790×10³ m³/d) of oil and refined products, is the world’s third-biggest oil trader after Royal Dutch Shell and Vitol.^[261] The operation is estimated to be able to generate over $1 billion trading profits in a good year.^[261]

Air BP is the aviation division of BP, providing aviation fuel, lubricants & services. It has operations in over 50 countries worldwide. BP Shipping provides the logistics to move BP’s oil and gas cargoes to market, as well as marine structural assurance.^[262] It manages a large fleet of vessels most of which are held on long-term operating leases. BP Shipping’s chartering teams based in London, Singapore, and Chicago also charter third party vessels on both time charter and voyage charter basis. The BP-managed fleet consists of Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs), one North Sea shuttle tanker, medium size crude and product carriers, liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) carriers, and coasters. All of these ships are double-hulled.^[263]

BP has around 18,700 service stations worldwide.^[1] Its flagship retail brand is BP Connect, a chain of service stations combined with a convenience store,^[264] although in the US it is gradually being transitioned to the ampm format. BP also owns half of Kentucky-based convenience store company Thorntons LLC with ArcLight Capital Partners (who own the Gulf brand in the United States) since 2019. On 13 July 2021, BP announced it will take acquire ArcLight Capital Partners’ share of Thorntons, and thus fully own the convenience store company. The deal is expected to close later in the year.^[265] In Germany and Luxembourg, BP operates service stations under the Aral brand.^[98] On the US West Coast, in the states of California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Idaho, Arizona, and Utah, BP primarily operates service stations under the ARCO brand.^[266] In Australia BP operates a number of BP Travel Centres, large-scale destination sites located which, in addition to the usual facilities in a BP Connect site, also feature food-retail tenants such as McDonald’s, KFC and Nando’s and facilities for long-haul truck drivers.^[267]

Castrol is BP’s main brand for industrial and automotive lubricants and is applied to a large range of BP oils, greases and similar products for most lubrication applications.^[268]

Clean energy rhetoric[edit]

BP’s public rhetoric and pledges emphasise that the company is shifting towards climate-friendly, low-carbon and transition strategies. However, a 2022 study found that the company’s spending on clean energy was insignificant and opaque, with little to suggest that the company’s discourse matched its actions.^[269]

BP was the first of supermajors to say that it would focus on energy sources other than fossil fuels.^[150] It established an alternative and low carbon energy business in 2005. According to the company, it spent a total of $8.3 billion in renewable energy projects including solar, wind, and biofuels, and non-renewable projects including natural gas and hydrogen power, through completion in 2013.^{[270][271][272]} The relatively small size of BP’s alternative energy operations has led to allegations of greenwashing by Greenpeace,^[273] Mother Jones,^[274] and energy analyst and activist Antonia Juhasz,^[275] among others.^[276] In 2018, the CEO Bob Dudley said that out of the company’s total spending of $15 to $17 billion per year, about $500 million will be invested in low-carbon energy and technology.^[277] In August 2020, BP promised to increase its annual low carbon investments to $5 billion by 2030.^[258] The company announced plans to transform into an integrated energy company, with a renewed focus on investing away from oil and into low-carbon technologies.^[278] It has set targets to have a renewables portfolio of 20 GW by 2025, and 50 GW by 2030.^[279]

BP operates nine wind farms in seven states of the U.S., and held an interest in another in Hawaii with a net generating capacity of 1,679 MW.^[214] It is also in process to acquire 50% non-operating stake in the Empire Wind off New York and Beacon Wind off Massachusetts offshore wind farms.^[167] BP and Tesla, Inc. are cooperating for testing the energy storage by battery at the Titan 1 wind farm.^[280] BP Launchpad has also invested in ONYX InSight, one of the leading providers of predictive analytic solutions serving the wind industry.^[281]

In Brazil, BP owns two ethanol producers—Companhia Nacional de Açúcar e Álcool andTropical BioEnergia—with three ethanol mills.^[252] These mills produce around 800,000 cubic metres per annum (5,000,000 bbl/a) of ethanol equivalent.^[282] BP has invested in an agricultural biotechnology company Chromatin, a company developing crops that can grow on marginal land and that are optimized to be used as feedstock for biofuel.^[283] Its joint venture with DuPont called Butamax, which has developed the patented bio-butanol-producing technology,^[284] and owns an isobutanol plant in Scandia, Kansas, United States.^[152] In addition BP owns biomethane production facilities in Canton, Michigan, and North Shelby, Tennessee, as well as share of facilities under construction in Oklahoma City and Atlanta.^[151] BP’s subsidiary Air BP supplies aviation biofuel at Oslo, Halmstad, and Bergen airports.^[285]

BP owns a 43% stake in Lightsource BP, a company which focuses on the managing and maintaining solar farms. As of 2017, Lightsource has commissioned 1.3 GW of solar capacity and manages about 2 GW of solar capacity. It plans to increase the capacity up to 8 GW through projects in the United States, India, Europe and the Middle East.^[149][150] BP has invested $20 million in Israeli quick-charging battery firm StoreDot Ltd.^[286] It operates electric vehicle charging networks in the UK under its subsidiary BP Chargemaster, and in China via a joint venture with Didi Chuxing.^[157]

In partnership with Ørsted A/S, BP plans a 50 MV electrolyser at the Lingen refinery to produce hydrogen using North Sea wind power. Production is expected to begin in 2024.^[287]

BP is a majority shareholder in carbon offset developer Finite Carbon,^[168] and acquired 9 GW of US solar projects in 2021.^[288]

In 2023, following the announcement of record profits, the company scaled back their emissions targets. Originally, the company promised a 35-40% cut of emissions by the end of the decade. On February 7, BP revised the target to a 20-30% cut in emissions, stating that it needed to keep up with the current demands for oil and gas.^[289]

Corporate affairs[edit]

Management[edit]

As of July 2023, the following individuals serve on the board:^[291]

• Helge Lund (chairman)
• Bernard Looney (chief executive officer)
• Murray Auchincloss (chief financial officer)
• Paula Rosput Reynolds (senior independent director)
• Amanda Blanc (independent non-executive director)
• Pamela Daley (independent non-executive director)
• Melody Meyer (independent non-executive director)
• Tushar Morzaria (independent non-executive director)
• Hina Nagarajan (independent non-executive director)
• Satish Pai (independent non-executive director)
• Karen Richardson (independent non-executive director)
• Sir John Sawers (independent non-executive director)
• Johannes Teyssen (independent non-executive director)
• Ben Mathews (company secretary)

Past chairmen[edit]

Past chairmen have included:^{[292][293][294]}

• The Lord Strathalmond, 1954–1956
• Basil Jackson, 1956–1957
• Sir Neville Gass, 1957–1960
• Sir Maurice Bridgeman, 1960–1969
• Sir Eric Drake, 1969–1975
• Sir David Steel, 1975–1981
• Sir Peter Walters, 1981–1990
• Sir Robert Horton, 1990–1992
• The Lord Ashburton, 1992–1995
• The Lord Simon of Highbury, 1995–1997
• Peter Sutherland, 1997–2009
• Carl-Henric Svanberg, 2010–2018
• Helge Lund, 2019–

Stock[edit]

The company’s shares are primarily traded on the London Stock Exchange, but also listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in Germany. In the United States shares are traded in US$ on the New York Stock Exchange in the form of American depository shares (ADS). One ADS represents six ordinary shares.^[295]

Following the United States Federal Trade Commission’s approval of the BP-Amoco merger in 1998, Amoco’s stock was removed from the S&P 500 and was merged with BP shares on the London Stock Exchange.^[296]

Branding and public relations[edit]

In the first quarter of 2001 the company adopted the marketing name of BP, and replaced its «Green Shield» logo with the «Helios» symbol, a green and yellow sunflower logo named after the Greek sun god and designed to represent energy in its many forms. BP introduced a new corporate slogan – «Beyond Petroleum» along with a $200M advertising and marketing campaign.^[297][298] According to the company, the new slogan represented their focus on meeting the growing demand for fossil fuels, manufacturing and delivering more advanced products, and to enable transitioning to a lower carbon footprint.^[299]

By 2008, BP’s branding campaign had succeeded with the culmination of a 2007 Effie Award from the American Marketing Association, and consumers had the impression that BP was one of the greenest petroleum companies in the world.^[300] BP was criticised by environmentalists and marketing experts, who stated that the company’s alternative energy activities were only a fraction of the company’s business at the time.^[301] According to Democracy Now, BP’s marketing campaign amounted to a deceptive greenwashing public-relations spin campaign given that BP’s 2008 budget included more than $20 billion for fossil fuel investment and less than $1.5 billion for all alternative forms of energy.^[302][303] Oil and energy analyst Antonia Juhasz notes BP’s investment in green technologies peaked at 4% of its exploratory budget prior to cutbacks, including the discontinuation of BP Solar and the closure of its alternative energy headquarters in London.^[137][302] According to Juhasz, «four percent…hardly qualifies the company to be Beyond Petroleum», citing BP’s «aggressive modes of production, whether it’s the tar sands [or] offshore».^[302]

BP attained a negative public image from the series of industrial accidents that occurred through the 2000s, and its public image was severely damaged after the Deepwater Horizon explosion and Gulf Oil spill. In the immediate aftermath of the spill, BP initially downplayed the severity of the incident, and made many of the same PR errors that Exxon had made after the Exxon Valdez disaster.^[304][305] CEO Tony Hayward was criticised for his statements and had committed several gaffes, including stating that he «wanted his life back.»^[306] Some in the media commended BP for some of its social media efforts, such as the use of Twitter and Facebook as well as a section of the company’s website where it communicated its efforts to clean up the spill.^{[307][308][309]}

In February 2012 BP North America launched a $500 million branding campaign to rebuild its brand.^[310]

The company’s advertising budget was about $5 million per week during the four-month spill in the Gulf of Mexico, totalling nearly $100 million.^[311][312]

In May 2012, BP tasked a press office staff member to openly join discussions on the Wikipedia article’s talk page and suggest content to be posted by other editors.^[313] Controversy emerged in 2013 over the amount of content from BP that had entered this article.^[314][315] Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales stated that, by identifying himself as a BP staff member, the contributor in question had complied with site policy regarding conflicts of interest.^[314]

Integrity and compliance[edit]

Investigative journalism by BBC Panorama and Africa Eye aired in June 2019 criticising BP for the way in which it had obtained the development rights of Cayar Offshore Profond and St. Louis Offshore Profond blocks, off the coast of Senegal in 2017. In 2012, a Frank Timiș company, Petro-Tim, though previously unknown to the oil industry, was awarded a license to explore the blocks despite having no known record in the industry. Soon after, Aliou Sall, brother of Senegal’s president, Macky Sall, was hired at the company, implying a conflict of interest,^[316] causing public outrage in Senegal. The 2019 program by BBC Panorama and Africa Eye accuses BP of a failure in due diligence when it agreed on a deal with Timis Corporation in 2017. The deal by BP is expected to provide substantial royalties to Frank Timiș despite accusations of initially obtaining the exploration rights through corruption. Kosmos Energy was also implicated.^[317] BP refutes any implications of improper conduct. Regarding the acquisition of Timis Corporation interests in Senegal in April 2017, BP states that it «paid what it considered a fair market value for the interests at this stage of exploration/development». However, BP has not made public what was the basis of the valuation, and states that «the details of the deal are confidential».^[318] BP argues that «the amount which would be paid separately by BP to Timis Corporation would be less than one percent of what the Republic of Senegal would receive». Senegal’s justice ministry has called an inquiry into the energy contracts.^[316]

LGBTQ recognition[edit]

In 2014, BP backed a global study researching challenges for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees and for ways that companies can be a «force for change» for LGBT workers around the world.^[319] In 2015, Reuters wrote that BP is «known for their more liberal policies for gay and transgender workers».^[320] A 2016 article in the Houston Chronicle said BP was «among the first major companies in the United States to offer LGBT workers equal protection and benefits roughly 20 years ago».^[321] BP scored a 100% on the 2018 Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index, which was released in 2017, although this was the most common score.^[322] Also in 2017, BP added gender reassignment surgery to its list of benefits for U.S. employees.^[323] According to the Human Rights Campaign, BP is one of only a few oil and gas companies offering transgender benefits to its employees.^[323] BP ranked No. 51 on the list of Top 100 employers for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender staff on the 2017 Stonewall Workplace Equality Index.^[324] Also in 2017, John Mingé, chairman and president of BP America, signed a letter alongside other Houston oil executives denouncing the proposed «bathroom bill» in Texas.^[325]

Environmental record[edit]

Climate policy[edit]

Prior to 1997, BP was a member of the Global Climate Coalition, an industry organisation established to promote global warming scepticism, but withdrew in 1997, saying «the time to consider the policy dimensions of climate change is not when the link between greenhouse gases and climate change is conclusively proven, but when the possibility cannot be discounted and is taken seriously by the society of which we are part. We in BP have reached that point.».^[326][327] BP was distinguished as the first multinational outside of the reinsurance industry to publicly support the scientific consensus on climate change, which Pew Center on Global Climate Change president Eileen Claussen then described as a transformative moment on the issue.^[328] In March 2002, Lord John Browne, the group chief executive of BP that time, declared in a speech that global warming was real and that urgent action was needed.^[329] Notwithstanding this, from 1988 to 2015 BP was responsible for 1.53% of global industrial greenhouse gas emissions.^[14] In 2015, BP was listed by the UK-based non-profit organisation Influence Map as the fiercest opponent of action on climate change in Europe.^[330] In 2018, BP was the largest contributor to the campaign opposing carbon fee initiative 1631 in Washington State.^[331] Robert Allendorfer, manager of BP’s Cherry Point refinery, wrote the following in a letter to state lawmakers: «[Initiative 1631] would exempt six of the ten largest stationary source emitters in the state, including a coal-fired power plant, an aluminum smelter, and a number of pulp and paper plants.»^[332] According to a 2019 Guardian ranking, BP was the 6th largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world.^[333]

In February 2020, BP set a goal to cut its greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero by 2050. BP is seeking net-zero carbon emissions across its operations and the fuels the company sells, including emissions from cars, homes, and factories.^{[160][334][335]} Details on the scope of this and how this will be achieved are publicly limited.^[336] BP said that it is restructuring its operations into four business groups to meet these goals: production and operations; customers and products; gas and low carbon; and innovation and engineering.^[160] The company discontinued involvement with American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, Western States Petroleum Association, and Western Energy Alliance, involved in lobbying government within the United States, because of differences of position on the issue of methane and carbon policies, as a development of this new commitment.^[337][338] However, an investigation conducted by Unearthed, an investigations unit of Greenpeace UK, and HuffPost unveiled eight anti-climate trade associations BP failed to disclose, including Alliance of Western Energy Consumers, Texas Oil and Gas Association, Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association, and the Business Council of Australia, among others.^[339]

In August 2020, BP America’s chairman David Lawler criticised elimination of federal requirements to install equipment to detect and fix methane leaks by saying that «direct federal regulation of methane emissions is essential to preventing leaks throughout the industry and protecting the environment.»^[340]

In BP’s Energy Outlook 2020, BP stated that the changing energy landscape coupled with the economic toll of the COVID-19 pandemic means that the global crude demand will never again surpass 2019’s average. All three scenarios in the outlook see the consumption of coal, oil, and natural gas dropping while the role of renewable energy will soar. BP is also attempting to move from being an international oil company into becoming an integrated energy company that will focus on low-carbon technologies while also setting a target to reduce its overall oil and gas production by 40% by 2030.^[341]

In 2021, BP was ranked as the 5th most environmentally responsible company out of 120 oil, gas, and mining companies involved in resource extraction north of the Arctic Circle in the Arctic Environmental Responsibility Index (AERI).^[342]

In December 2022, U.S. House Oversight and Reform Committee Chair Carolyn Maloney and U.S. House Oversight Environment Subcommittee Chair Ro Khanna sent a memorandum to all House Oversight and Reform Committee members summarizing additional findings from the Committee’s investigation into the fossil fuel industry disinformation campaign to obscure the role of fossil fuels in causing global warming, and that upon reviewing internal company documents, accused BP along with ExxonMobil, Chevron, and Shell of greenwashing their Paris Agreement carbon neutrality pledges while continuing long-term investment in fossil fuel production and sales, for engaging in a campaign to promote the use of natural gas as a clean energy source and bridge fuel to renewable energy, and of intimidating journalists reporting about the companies’ climate actions and of obstructing the Committee’s investigation.^{[343][344][345]}

After initially pledging to reduce its emissions by 35% by 2030, BP stated in 2023 that it would aim for a 20-30% reduction instead.^[346]

Indigenous rights[edit]

In a 2016 study, conducted by Indra Øverland of Norwegian Institute of International Affairs BP was ranked 15th out of 18 levels (in total 37th out of 92 oil, gas and mining companies) on indigenous rights and resource extraction in the Arctic. The ranking of companies took into account 20 criteria, such as the companies’ commitments to international standards, the presence of organisational units dedicated to handling indigenous rights, competent staffing, track records on indigenous issues, transparency, and procedures for consulting with indigenous peoples, but the actual performance of companies on indigenous rights was not assessed.^[347]

Hazardous substance dumping 1993–1995[edit]

In September 1999, one of BP’s US subsidiaries, BP Exploration Alaska (BPXA), pleaded guilty to criminal charges stemming from its illegally dumping of hazardous wastes on the Alaska North Slope, paying fines and penalties totalling $22 million. BP paid the maximum $500,000 in criminal fines, $6.5 million in civil penalties, and established a $15 million environmental management system at all of BP facilities in the US and Gulf of Mexico that are engaged in oil exploration, drilling or production. The charges stemmed from the 1993 to 1995 dumping of hazardous wastes on Endicott Island, Alaska by BP’s contractor Doyon Drilling. The firm illegally discharged waste oil, paint thinner and other toxic and hazardous substances by injecting them down the outer rim, or annuli, of the oil wells. BPXA failed to report the illegal injections when it learned of the conduct, in violation of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act.^[348]

Air pollution violations[edit]

In 2000, BP Amoco acquired ARCO, a Los Angeles-based oil group.^[90]
In 2003, California’s South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD) filed a complaint against BP/ARCO, seeking $319 million in penalties for thousands of air pollution violations over an 8-year period.^[349] In January 2005, the agency filed a second suit against BP based on violations between August 2002 and October 2004. The suit alleged that BP illegally released air pollutants by failing to adequately inspect, maintain, repair and properly operate thousands of pieces of equipment across the refinery as required by AQMD regulations. It was alleged that in some cases the violations were due to negligence, while in others the violations were knowingly and willfully committed by refinery officials.^[350] In 2005, a settlement was reached under which BP agreed to pay $25 million in cash penalties and $6 million in past emissions fees, while spending $20 million on environmental improvements at the refinery and $30 million on community programs focused on asthma diagnosis and treatment.^[351]

In 2013, a total of 474 Galveston County residents living near the BP Texas City Refinery filed a $1 billion lawsuit against BP, accusing the company of «intentionally misleading the public about the seriousness» of a two-week release of toxic fumes which began on 10 November 2011. «BP reportedly released Sulfur Dioxide, Methyl Carpaptan, Dimethyl Disulfide and other toxic chemicals into the atmosphere» reads the report. The lawsuit further claims Galveston county has the worst air quality in the United States due to BP’s violations of air pollution laws. BP had no comment and said it would address the suit in the court system.^{[352][353][354][355]}

Colombian farmland damages claim[edit]

In 2006, a group of Colombian farmers reached a multimillion-dollar out-of-court settlement with BP for alleged environmental damage caused by the Ocensa pipeline.^[356] The company was accused of benefiting from a regime of terror carried out by Colombian government paramilitaries to protect the 450-mile (720 km) Ocensa pipeline; BP said throughout that it has acted responsibly and that landowners were fairly compensated.^[357]

In 2009, another group of 95 Colombian farmers filed a suit against BP, saying the company’s Ocensa pipeline caused landslides and damage to soil and groundwater, affecting crops, livestock, and contaminating water supplies, making fish ponds unsustainable. Most of the land traversed by the pipeline was owned by peasant farmers who were illiterate and unable to read the environmental impact assessment conducted by BP prior to construction, which acknowledged significant and widespread risks of damage to the land.^[358] The Supreme Court of Justice of Colombia handed down a judgement rejecting the case in August 2016.^[359]

Canadian oil sands[edit]

Since 2007, BP has been involved in oil sands projects,^[360] which Greenpeace has called a climate crime.^[361] Members of Canada’s First Nations have criticised BP’s involvement for the impacts oil sands extraction has on the environment.^[362] In 2010, BP pledged to use only in-situ technologies instead of open-pit mining.^[363] It uses steam-assisted gravity drainage in-situ technology to extract bitumen.^[364] According to Greenpeace it is even more damaging to climate because while according to the Pembina Institute in-situ techniques result in lower nitrogen oxide emissions, and are less damaging to the landscape and rivers, they cause more greenhouse gas and sulphur dioxide emissions than mining.^[363] In 2010, activist shareholders asked BP for a full investigation of the Sunrise oil sands project, but were defeated.^[363][365] In 2013, shareholders criticised the project for being carbon-intensive.^[366]

Violations and accidents[edit]

Citing conditions similar to those that resulted in the 2005 Texas City Refinery explosion, on 25 April 2006, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) fined BP more than $2.4 million for unsafe operations at the company’s Oregon, Ohio refinery. An OSHA inspection resulted in 32 per-instance wilful citations including locating people in vulnerable buildings among the processing units, failing to correct depressurisation deficiencies and deficiencies with gas monitors, and failing to prevent the use of non-approved electrical equipment in locations in which hazardous concentrations of flammable gases or vapours may exist. BP was further fined for neglecting to develop shutdown procedures and designate responsibilities and to establish a system to promptly address and resolve recommendations made after an incident when a large feed pump failed three years prior to 2006. Penalties were also issued for five serious violations, including failure to develop operating procedures for a unit that removes sulphur compound; failure to ensure that operating procedures reflect current operating practice in the Isocracker Unit; failure to resolve process hazard analysis recommendations; failure to resolve process safety management compliance audit items in a timely manner; and failure to periodically inspect pressure piping systems.^[367][368]

In 2008, BP and several other major oil refiners agreed to pay $422 million to settle a class-action lawsuit stemming from water contamination tied to the gasoline additive MTBE, a chemical that was once a key gasoline ingredient. Leaked from storage tanks, MTBE has been found in several water systems across the United States. The plaintiffs maintain that the industry knew about the environmental dangers but that they used it instead of other possible alternatives because it was less expensive. The companies will also be required to pay 70% of cleanup costs for any wells newly affected at any time over the next 30 years.^[369][370]

BP has one of the worst safety records of any major oil company that operates in the United States. Between 2007 and 2010, BP refineries in Ohio and Texas accounted for 97% of «egregious, willful» violations handed out by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). BP had 760 «egregious, willful» violations during that period, while Sunoco and Conoco-Phillips each had eight, Citgo two and Exxon had one.^[371] The deputy assistant secretary of labour at OSHA, said «The only thing you can conclude is that BP has a serious, systemic safety problem in their company.»^[372]

A report in ProPublica, published in The Washington Post» in 2010, found that over a decade of internal investigations of BP’s Alaska operations during the 2000s warned senior BP managers that the company repeatedly disregarded safety and environmental rules and risked a serious accident if it did not change its ways. ProPublica found that «Taken together, these documents portray a company that systemically ignored its own safety policies across its North American operations – from Alaska to the Gulf of Mexico to California and Texas. Executives were not held accountable for the failures, and some were promoted despite them.»^[373]

The Project On Government Oversight, an independent non-profit organisation in the United States which investigates and seeks to expose corruption and other misconduct, lists BP as number one on their listing of the 100 worst corporations based on instances of misconduct.^[374]

1965 Sea Gem offshore oil rig disaster[edit]

In December 1965, Britain’s first oil rig, Sea Gem, capsized when two of the legs collapsed during an operation to move it to a new location. The oil rig had been hastily converted in an effort to quickly start drilling operations after the North Sea was opened for exploration. Thirteen crew members were killed. No hydrocarbons were released in the accident.^[375][376]

Texas City Refinery explosion and leaks[edit]

The former Amoco oil refinery at Texas City, Texas, was beset by environmental issues, including chemical leaks and a 2005 explosion that killed 15 people and injured hundreds. Bloomberg News described the incident, which led to a guilty plea by BP to a felony Clean Air Act charge, as «one of the deadliest U.S. industrial accidents in 20 years.» The refinery was sold to Marathon Petroleum in October 2012.^[377]

2005 explosion[edit]

In March 2005, the Texas City Refinery, one of the largest refineries owned then by BP, exploded causing 15 deaths, injuring 180 people and forcing thousands of nearby residents to remain sheltered in their homes.^[378] A 20-foot (6.1 m) column filled with hydrocarbon overflowed to form a vapour cloud, which ignited. The explosion caused all the casualties and substantial damage to the rest of the plant.^[379] The incident came as the culmination of a series of less serious accidents at the refinery, and the engineering problems were not addressed by the management. Maintenance and safety at the plant had been cut as a cost-saving measure, the responsibility ultimately resting with executives in London.^[380]

The fallout from the accident clouded BP’s corporate image because of the mismanagement at the plant. There had been several investigations of the disaster, the most recent being that from the US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board^[381] which «offered a scathing assessment of the company.» OSHA found «organizational and safety deficiencies at all levels of the BP Corporation» and said management failures could be traced from Texas to London.^[378] The company pleaded guilty to a felony violation of the Clean Air Act, was fined $50 million, the largest ever assessed under the Clean Air Act, and sentenced to three years probation.^[382]

On 30 October 2009, the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) fined BP an additional $87 million, the largest fine in OSHA history, for failing to correct safety hazards documented in the 2005 explosion. Inspectors found 270 safety violations that had been cited but not fixed and 439 new violations. BP appealed the fine.^[378][383] In July 2012, the company agreed to pay $13 million to settle the new violations. At that time OSHA found «no imminent dangers» at the Texas plant. Thirty violations remained under discussion.^[384] In March 2012, US Department of Justice officials said the company had met all of its obligations and subsequently ended the probationary period.^[385] In November 2011, BP agreed to pay the state of Texas $50 million for violating state emissions standards at its Texas City refinery during and after the 2005 explosion at the refinery. The state Attorney General said BP was responsible for 72 separate pollutant emissions that have been occurring every few months since March 2005. It was the largest fine ever imposed under the Texas Clean Air Act.^[386][387]

2007 toxic substance release[edit]

In 2007, 143 workers at the Texas City refinery claimed that they were injured when a toxic substance was released at the plant. In December 2009, after a three-week trial, a federal jury in Galveston awarded ten of those workers $10 million each in punitive damages, in addition to smaller damages for medical expenses and pain and suffering. The plant had a history of chemical releases.^[388] In March 2010, the federal judge hearing the case reduced the jury’s award to less than $500,000. U.S. District Judge Kenneth M. Hoyt said the plaintiffs failed to prove BP was grossly negligent.^[389]

2010 chemical leak[edit]

In August 2010, the Texas Attorney General charged BP with illegally emitting harmful air pollutants from its Texas City refinery for more than a month.
BP has admitted that malfunctioning equipment led to the release of over 530,000 pounds (240,000 kg) of chemicals into the air of Texas City and surrounding areas from 6 April to 16 May 2010. The leak included 17,000 pounds (7,700 kg) of benzene, 37,000 pounds (17,000 kg) of nitrogen oxides, and 186,000 pounds (84,000 kg) of carbon monoxide. The State’s investigation showed that BP’s failure to properly maintain its equipment caused the malfunction. When the equipment malfunctioned and caught fire, BP workers shut it down and routed escaping gases to flares. Rather than shut down associated units while compressor repairs were made, BP chose to keep operating those other units, which led to unlawful release of contaminants for almost 40 days. The Attorney General is seeking civil penalties of no less than $50 nor greater than $25,000 per day of each violation of state air quality laws, as well as attorneys’ fees and investigative costs.^{[387][390][391]}

In June 2012, over 50,000 Texas City residents joined a class-action suit against BP, alleging they became sick in 2010 as a result of the emissions release from the refinery. BP said the release harmed no one.^[392] In October 2013, a trial designed as a test for a larger suit that includes 45,000 people found that BP was negligent in the case, but due to the lack of substantial evidence linking illness to the emissions, decided the company would be absolved of any wrongdoing.^[393][394]

Prudhoe Bay[edit]

In March 2006, corrosion of a BP Exploration Alaska (BPXA) oil transit pipeline in Prudhoe Bay transporting oil to the Trans-Alaska Pipeline led to a five-day leak and the largest oil spill on Alaska’s North Slope.^[15] According to the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (ADEC), a total of 212,252 US gallons (5,053.6 bbl; 803.46 m³) of oil was spilled, covering 2 acres (0.81 ha) of the North Slope.^[395] BP admitted that cost-cutting measures had resulted in a lapse in monitoring and maintenance of the pipeline and the consequent leak. At the moment of the leak, pipeline inspection gauges (known as «pigs») had not been run through the pipeline since 1998.^{[396][397][398][399]} BP completed the clean-up of the spill by May 2006, including removal of contaminated gravel and vegetation, which was replaced with new material from the Arctic tundra.^[395][400]

Following the spill, the company was ordered by regulators to inspect the 35 kilometres (22 mi) of pipelines in Prudhoe Bay using «smart pigs».^[401] In late July 2006, the «smart pigs» monitoring the pipelines found 16 places where corrosion had thinned pipeline walls. A BP crew sent to inspect the pipe in early August discovered a leak and small spill,^[401][402] following which, BP announced that the eastern portion of the Alaskan field would be shut down for repairs on the pipeline,^[402][403] with approval from the Department of Transportation. The shutdown resulted in a reduction of 200,000 barrels per day (32,000 m³/d) until work began to bring the eastern field to full production on 2 October 2006.^[404] In total, 23 barrels (3.7 m³) of oil were spilled and 176 barrels (28.0 m³) were «contained and recovered», according to ADEC. The spill was cleaned up and there was no impact upon wildlife.^[405]

After the shutdown, BP pledged to replace 26 kilometres (16 mi) of its Alaskan oil transit pipelines^[406][407] and the company completed work on the 16 miles (26 km) of new pipeline by the end of 2008.^[408] In November 2007, BP Exploration, Alaska pleaded guilty to negligent discharge of oil, a misdemeanour under the federal Clean Water Act and was fined US$20 million.^[409] There was no charge brought for the smaller spill in August 2006 due to BP’s quick response and clean-up.^[396] On 16 October 2007, ADEC officials reported a «toxic spill» from a BP pipeline in Prudhoe Bay comprising 2,000 US gallons (7,600 L; 1,700 imp gal) of primarily methanol (methyl alcohol) mixed with crude oil and water, which spilled onto a gravel pad and frozen tundra pond.^[410]

In the settlement of a civil suit, in July 2011 investigators from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration determined that the 2006 spills were a result of BPXA’s failure to properly inspect and maintain the pipeline to prevent corrosion. The government issued a Corrective Action Order to BP XA that addressed the pipeline’s risks and ordered pipeline repair or replacement. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had investigated the extent of the oil spills and oversaw BPXA’s cleanup. When BP XA did not fully comply with the terms of the corrective action, a complaint was filed in March 2009 alleging violations of the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act and the Pipeline Safety Act. In July 2011, the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska entered a consent decree between the United States and BPXA resolving the government’s claims. Under the consent decree, BPXA paid a $25 million civil penalty, the largest per-barrel penalty at that time for an oil spill, and agreed to take measures to significantly improve inspection and maintenance of its pipeline infrastructure on the North Slope to reduce the threat of additional oil spills.^[411][412]

2008 Caspian Sea gas leak[edit]

On 17 September 2008, a small gas leak was discovered and one gas-injection well broached to surface in the area of the Central Azeri platform at the Azeri oilfield, a part of the Azeri–Chirag–Guneshli (ACG) project, in the Azerbaijan sector of Caspian Sea.^[413][414] The platform was shut down and the staff was evacuated.^[413] As the West Azeri Platform was being powered by a cable from the Central Azeri Platform, it was also shut down.^[415] Production at the West Azeri Platform resumed on 9 October 2008 and at the Central Azeri Platform in December 2008.^[416][417] According to leaked US Embassy cables, BP had been «exceptionally circumspect in disseminating information» and showed that BP thought the cause for the blowout was a bad cement job. The cables further said that some of BP’s ACG partners complained that the company was so secretive that it was withholding information even from them.^{[414][418][419]}

California storage tanks[edit]

Santa Barbara County District Attorney sued BP West Coast Products LLC, BP Products North America, Inc., and Atlantic Richfield Company over allegations that the companies violated state laws regarding operating and maintaining motor vehicle fuel underground storage tank laws. BP settled a lawsuit for $14 million. The complaint alleged that BP failed to properly inspect and maintain underground tanks used to store gasoline for retail sale at approximately 780 gas stations in California over a period of ten years and violated other hazardous material and hazardous waste laws. The case settled in November 2016 and was the result of collaboration among the California Attorney General’s Office and several district attorney’s offices across the state.^[420]

Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill[edit]

External video
Frontline: The Spill (54:25), Frontline on PBS[421]

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill was a major industrial accident on the Gulf of Mexico, which killed 11 people and injured 16 others, leaked about 4.9 million barrels (210 million US gal; 780,000 m³) of oil with plus or minus 10% uncertainty,^[16] which makes it the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry,^[17][422] and cost to the company more than $65 billion of cleanup costs, charges and penalties.^[22][23] On 20 April 2010, the semi-submersible exploratory offshore drilling rig Deepwater Horizon located in the Macondo Prospect in the Gulf of Mexico exploded after a blowout. After burning for two days, the rig sank. The well was finally capped on 15 July 2010. Of 4.9 million barrels (210 million US gal; 780,000 m³) of leaked oil 810,000 barrels (34 million US gal; 129,000 m³) was collected or burned while 4.1 million barrels (170 million US gal; 650,000 m³) entered the Gulf waters.^[423][424] 1.8 million US gallons (6,800 m³) of Corexit dispersant was applied.^[425][426]

The spill had a strong economic impact on the Gulf Coast’s economy sectors such as fishing and tourism.^[427]

Environmental impact[edit]

Oil spill caused damages across a range of species and habitats in the Gulf.^[428] Researchers say the oil and dispersant mixture, including PAHs, permeated the food chain through zooplankton.^{[429][430][431]} Toxicological effects have been documented in benthic and pelagic fish, estuarine communities, mammals, birds and turtles, deep-water corals, plankton, foraminifera, and microbial communities. Effects on different populations consist of increased mortality or as sub-lethal impairment on the organisms’ ability to forage, reproduce and avoid predators.^[428] In 2013, it was reported that dolphins and other marine life continued to die in record numbers with infant dolphins dying at six times the normal rate,^[432] and half the dolphins examined in a December 2013 study were seriously ill or dying. BP said the report was «inconclusive as to any causation associated with the spill.»^[433][434]

Studies in 2013 suggested that as much as one-third of the released oil remains in the gulf. Further research suggested that the oil on the bottom of the seafloor was not degrading.^[435] Oil in affected coastal areas increased erosion due to the death of mangrove trees and marsh grass.^{[436][437][438]}

Researchers looking at sediment, seawater, biota, and seafood found toxic compounds in high concentrations that they said was due to the added oil and dispersants.^[439] Although Gulf fisheries recovered in 2011,^[440] a 2014 study of the effects of the oil spill on bluefin tuna by researchers at Stanford University and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, published in the journal Science, found that toxins released by the oil spill sent fish into cardiac arrest. The study found that even very low concentrations of crude oil can slow the pace of fish heartbeats. BP disputed the study, which was conducted as part of the federal Natural Resource Damage Assessment process required by the Oil Pollution Act.^[441][442] The study also found that oil already broken down by wave action and chemical dispersants was more toxic than fresh oil.^[443] Another peer-reviewed study, released in March 2014 and conducted by 17 scientists from the United States and Australia and published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that tuna and amberjack that were exposed to oil from the spill developed deformities of the heart and other organs. BP responded that the concentrations of oil in the study were a level rarely seen in the Gulf, but The New York Times reported that the BP statement was contradicted by the study.^[444]

Effects on human health[edit]

Research discussed at a 2013 conference included preliminary results of an ongoing study being done by the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences indicating that oil spill cleanup workers carry biomarkers of chemicals contained in the spilled oil and the dispersants used.^[445] A separate study is following the health issues of women and children affected by the spill. Several studies found that a «significant percentage» of Gulf residents reported mental health problems such as anxiety, depression and PTSD.^[445] According to a Columbia University study investigating the health effects among children living less than 10 miles from the coast, more than a third of the parents report physical or mental health symptoms among their children.^[445]

Australia’s 60 Minutes reported that people living along the gulf coast were becoming sick from the mixture of Corexit and oil.^[446] Susan Shaw, of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill Strategic Sciences Working Group, says «BP told the public that Corexit was ‘as harmless as Dawn dishwashing liquid’…But BP and the EPA clearly knew about the toxicity of the Corexit long before this spill.» According to Shaw, BP’s own safety sheet on Corexit says that there are «high and immediate human health hazards».^[447] Cleanup workers were not provided safety equipment by the company, and the safety manuals were «rarely if ever» followed, or distributed to workers, according to a Newsweek investigation. The safety manuals read: «Avoid breathing vapor» and «Wear suitable protective clothing.»^[448][449] Oil clean up workers reported that they were not allowed to use respirators, and that their jobs were threatened if they did.^{[450][451][452]}

A peer-reviewed study published in The American Journal of Medicine reported significantly altered blood profiles of individuals exposed to the spilled oil and dispersants that put them at increased risk of developing liver cancer, leukemia and other disorders.^[453] BP disputed its methodology and said other studies supported its position that dispersants did not create a danger to health.^[454]

In 2014, a study was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences which found heart deformities in fish exposed to oil from the spill. The researchers said that their results probably apply to humans as well as fish.^[444]

Civil and criminal suits[edit]

On 15 December 2010, the Department of Justice filed a civil and criminal suit against BP and other defendants for violations under the Clean Water Act in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.^{[455][456]: 70} The case was consolidated with about 200 others, including those brought by state governments, individuals, and companies under Multi-District Litigation docket MDL No. 2179, before U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier.^[457][458]

In November 2012, BP and the Department of Justice reached a $4 billion settlement of all federal criminal charges related to the explosion and spill. Under the settlement, BP agreed to plead guilty to 11 felony counts of manslaughter, two misdemeanors, and a felony count of lying to Congress and agreed to four years of government monitoring of its safety practices and ethics. BP also paid $525 million to settle civil charges by the Securities and Exchange Commission that it misled investors about the flow rate of oil from the well.^[19][459] At the same time, the US government filed criminal charges against three BP employees; two site managers were charged with manslaughter and negligence, and one former vice president with obstruction.^[19]

Judge Barbier ruled in the first phase of the case that BP had committed gross negligence and that «its employees took risks that led to the largest environmental disaster in U.S. history.» He apportioned fault at 67% for BP, 30% for Transocean and 3% for Halliburton. Barbier ruled that BP was «reckless» and had acted with «conscious disregard of known risks.»^[460][461]

Claims settlement[edit]

In June 2010, after a meeting in the White House between President Barack Obama and BP executives, the president announced that BP would pay $20 billion into a trust fund that will be used to compensate victims of the oil spill. BP also set aside $100 million to compensate oil workers who lost their jobs because of the spill.^[462][463]

On 2 March 2012, BP and businesses and residents affected by the spill reached a settlement of roughly 100,000 suits claiming economic losses. BP estimated that the settlement cost more than $9.2 billion.^[464][465]

In 2015, BP and five states agreed to an $18.5 billion settlement to be used for Clean Water Act penalties and various claims.^[21]

2022 Ohio refinery fire[edit]

On 20 September 2022, a fire at BP’s Husky Toledo refinery caused the death of two workers there. The fire was put out that day, but the refinery remained shut down. The refinery’s shutdown was expected to increase American petrol prices.^[466]

Political influence[edit]

Lobbying for Libyan prisoner transfer release[edit]

BP lobbied the British government to conclude a prisoner-transfer agreement which the Libyan government had wanted to secure the release of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the only person convicted for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing over Scotland, which killed 270 people. BP stated that it pressed for the conclusion of prisoner transfer agreement amid fears that delays would damage its «commercial interests» and disrupt its £900 million offshore drilling operations in the region, but it said that it had not been involved in negotiations concerning the release of Megrahi.^[467][468]

Political contributions and lobbying[edit]

In February 2002, BP’s then-chief executive, Lord Browne of Madingley, renounced the practice of corporate campaign contributions, saying: «That’s why we’ve decided, as a global policy, that from now on we will make no political contributions from corporate funds anywhere in the world.»^[469] When the Washington Post reported in June 2010 that BP North America «donated at least $4.8 million in corporate contributions in the past seven years to political groups, partisan organizations and campaigns engaged in federal and state elections», mostly to oppose ballot measures in two states aiming to raise taxes on the oil industry, the company said that the commitment had only applied to contributions to individual candidates.^[470]

During the 2008 U.S. election cycle, BP employees contributed to various candidates, with Barack Obama receiving the largest amount of money,^[471] broadly in line with contributions from Shell and Chevron, but significantly less than those of Exxon Mobil.^[472]

In 2009, BP spent nearly $16 million lobbying the U.S. Congress.^[473] In 2011, BP spent a total of $8,430,000 on lobbying and had 47 registered lobbyists.^[474]

Oman 1954 War[edit]

In 1937, Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC), 23.75% owned by BP,^[44] signed an oil concession agreement with the Sultan of Muscat. In 1952, IPC offered financial support to raise an armed force that would assist the Sultan in occupying the interior region of Oman, an area that geologists believed to be rich in oil. This led to the 1954 outbreak of Jebel Akhdar War in Oman that lasted for more than 5 years.^[45]

Market manipulation investigations and sanctions[edit]

The US Justice Department and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed charges against BP Products North America Inc. (subsidiary of BP plc) and several BP traders, alleging they conspired to raise the price of propane by seeking to corner the propane market in 2004.^{[475][476][477]} In 2006, one former trader pleaded guilty.^[476] In 2007, BP paid $303 million in restitution and fines as part of an agreement to defer prosecution.^[478] BP was charged with cornering and manipulating the price of TET propane in 2003 and 2004. BP paid a $125 million civil monetary penalty to the CFTC, established a compliance and ethics program, and installed a monitor to oversee BP’s trading activities in the commodities markets. BP also paid $53 million into a restitution fund for victims, a $100 million criminal penalty, plus $25 million into a consumer fraud fund, as well as other payments.^[479] Also in 2007, four other former traders were charged. These charges were dismissed by a US District Court in 2009 on the grounds that the transactions were exempt under the Commodities Exchange Act because they didn’t occur in a marketplace but were negotiated contracts among sophisticated companies. The dismissal was upheld by the Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit
in 2011.^[477]

In November 2010, US regulators FERC and CFTC began an investigation of BP for allegedly manipulating the gas market. The investigation relates to trading activity that occurred in October and November 2008.^[480][481] At that time, CFTC Enforcement staff provided BP with a notice of intent to recommend charges of attempted market manipulation in violation of the Commodity Exchange Act. BP denied that it engaged in «any inappropriate or unlawful activity.» In July 2011, the FERC staff issued a «Notice of Alleged Violations» saying it had preliminarily determined that several BP entities fraudulently traded physical natural gas in the Houston Ship Channel and Katy markets and trading points to increase the value of their financial swing spread positions.^[482]

In May 2013, the European Commission started an investigation into allegations the companies reported distorted prices to the price reporting agency Platts, in order to «manipulate the published prices» for several oil and biofuel products.^[483][484] The investigation was dropped in December 2015 due to lack of evidence.^[485]

A dataset of gasoline prices of BP, Caltex, Woolworths, Coles, and Gull from Perth gathered in the years 2001 to 2015 was used to show by statistical analysis the tacit collusion between these retailers.^[486]

Documents from a 2016 bid to drill in the Great Australian Bight revealed claims by BP that a large-scale cleanup operation following a massive oil spill would bring a «welcome boost to local economies.»^[487] In the same bid BP also stated that a diesel spill would be «socially acceptable» due to a lack of «unresolved stakeholder concerns.»^[487]

An internal email from mid 2017, was leaked in April 2018 in New Zealand. The email laid out that pricing was to be raised at certain sites in a region around Otaki in order to regain volume lost at that branch.^[488] This led to the Government asking the Commerce Commission to investigate regional prices: initial indications were that motorists were paying too much across most of the country.^[489]

See also[edit]

• List of companies based in London

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

Bibliography[edit]

Commissioned works[edit]

Other works[edit]

External links[edit]

• Official website
• Business data for BP plc:
  • Bloomberg
  • Google
  • SEC filings
  • Yahoo!
• BP companies grouped at OpenCorporates

Бритиш Петролеум

Полезное

BP p

lc (до мая 2001 года компания носила название British Petroleum, впоследствии — Beyond petroleum) — британская нефтегазовая компания, вторая по величине публично торгующаяся нефтегазовая компания в мире. По состоянию на 2009 год компания занимала 4 место в Fortune Global 500. Штаб-квартира компании расположена в Лондоне.

Собственники компании BP

95 % акций компании находится (по данным на январь 2011 года) в свободном обращении. 5 % находятся в собственности компании Роснефть.

Руководство компании BP

1. Карл-Хенрик Сванберг
Председатель совета директоров

2. Роберт Дадли
Главный управляющий

Официальный сайт: http://www.bp.com/bodycopyarticle.do

Новости

Руководители BP и ExxonMobil признали, что Западу не обойтись без российского газа
Россия — это ключ к удовлетворению энергетических потребностей Запада, заявили гендиректоры BP Роберт Дадли и ExxonMobil Рекс Тиллерсон на XXI Мировом нефтяном конгрессе в Москве.
ссылка: http://www.vedomosti.ru/companies/news/27810441/rukovoditeli-bp-i-exxonmobil-priznali-chto-zapadu-ne-obojtis

Вице-президент по России и Казахстану ОАО «Бритиш Петролеум», член Совета директоров ОАО «ММК» Питер Чароу: Я считаю, баланс ММК гораздо крепче, чем у конкурентов

«В сегодняшней ситуации очень сложно обсуждать вопрос конкурентных преимуществ той или иной компании, поскольку все находятся в тяжелом положении. Тем не менее, рано или поздно этот кризис закончится, и тогда, я не сомневаюсь, у ММК будет очень значительное преимущество», — заявил в ходе пресс-конференции по итогам годового собрания акционеров ОАО «Магнитогорский металлургический комбинат» вице-президент по России и Казахстану ОАО «Бритиш Петролеум», член Совета директоров ОАО «ММК» Питер Чароу.
ссылка: http://su.urbc.ru/222935-post222935.html

Кризис делу не помеха

 Не первый год работает в составе совета директоров ОАО «ММК» вице–президент по России и Казахстану ОАО «Бритиш Петролеум» Питер Чароу.

— Минувший год, действительно, был тяжелым, – сказал господин Чароу. – Но руководство ММК справилось с трудной задачей. Топ-менеджеры комбината смогли учесть все рыночные условия: спрос, цену, себестоимость продукции. И при этом они умудрились реализовать еще и инвестиционную программу. Это крайне сложно – не только выживать в кризис, но и развиваться. Тем приятнее констатировать, что капитальные вложения, сделанные акционерным обществом, оказались более чем эффективными. При этом не стоит забывать, что в период кризиса конкуренция в отрасли была жесточайшей. Но это не помешало ММК занимать лидирующие позиции в металлургии.
ссылка: http://www.metalsamara.ru/metalart/krizis-delu-ne-pomeha

Дэвид Логан высоко оценил эффективность антикризисной программы ММК

«Во-первых, это вопрос географии – ММК находится в Уральском регионе, где сосредоточен основной спрос на металлургическую продукцию, – сказал вице–президент по России и Казахстану ОАО «Бритиш Петролеум», член совета директоров ММК Питер Чароу. – Во-вторых, у ММК очень широкий спектр продукции. Большим подспорьем в этом плане станет строительство стана «5000», кроме того, ММК выпускает и оцинкованную продукцию, и продукцию с полимерным покрытием. В-третьих, в отличие от своих конкурентов, ММК не покупал на заемные средства активы за границей и поэтому не имеет больших долгов. И сейчас, я считаю, баланс ММК гораздо крепче, чем у конкурентов».
ссылка: http://uralpress.ru/news/2009/05/22/devid

Иностранные эксперты высоко оценили антикризисную устойчивость и конкурентные преимущества ОАО «ММК»

По итогам прошедшего 22 мая собрания акционеров Магнитогорского металлургического комбината (ОАО «ММК», Челябинская область), предприятие получило высокую оценку иностранных экспертов. Вице-президент по России и Казахстану ОАО «Бритиш Петролеум», член совета директоров ОАО «ММК» Питер Чароу отметил, что «баланс ММК гораздо крепче, чем у конкурентов: в сегодняшней ситуации очень сложно обсуждать вопрос конкурентных преимуществ той или иной компании, поскольку все находятся в тяжелом положении.
ссылка: http://news.mail.ru/inregions/ural/74/economics/2609265/

Акционеры Магнитогорского меткомбината решили не выплачивать дивиденды-2011, в совет директоров вошла дочь Рашникова

Также акционеры избрали новый совет директоров из 10 человек. В новый состав совета директоров вошли президент ООО «Управляющая компания ММК» Виктор Рашников, генеральный директор ОАО «ММК» Борис Дубровский, зам гендиректора по коммерции ОАО «ММК» Виталий Бахметьев, финансовый директор ОАО «ММК» Ольга Рашникова и замгендиректора по продажам ОАО «ММК» Николай Лядов. Кроме того, в совет избраны пять независимых директоров: председатель совета управления Британского института археологии в Анкаре сэр Дэвид Логан, зам гендиректора ОАО «Полиметалл» Зумруд Рустамова, член совета директоров Aton Group Бернард Сачер, вице-президент по России ОАО «Бритиш Петролеум» Питер Чароу и председатель совета директоров ОАО «Соллерс» Дэвид Херман.
ссылка: http://www.biztass.ru/news/one/23979

FT: российские акционеры ТНК-BP получат контроль над компанией из-за ухода иностранных менеджеров

BP будут представлять Грант Уорнсби, Пол Китсон, Ричард Слоан и Питер Чароу, рассказал близкий к ТНК-BP источник. Представитель BP это не комментирует, уточнить должности менеджеров он затруднился. Чароу — независимый директор Магнитки, до 2005 года был директором BP в России, пишут «Ведомости».
ссылка: http://palm.newsru.com/finance/24nov2008/tnk_bp.html 

Сделка века: «Роснефть» выкупает 100% акций ТНК-BP
«Роснефть» выкупает 100% акций ТНК-BP у консорциума AAR и британской нефтяной компании BP. О подписании соответствующего соглашения сообщил глава «Роснефти» Игорь Сечин. Общая сумма соглашения 61 млрд долл.
Читать полностью: http://top.rbc.ru/economics/22/10/2012/675544.shtml

 И.Сечин: ВР получит 12,85% акций «Роснефти» в счет части стоимости акций ТНК-ВР.

22.10.2012, Москва 15:14:51 ВР получит 12,85% акций «Роснефти» в счет части стоимости акций ТНК-ВР. Об этом сообщил глава «Роснефти» Игорь Сечин на встрече с президентом РФ Владимиром Путиным.
ссылка: http://www.rbc.ru/rbcfreenews/20121022151451.shtml      

 И.Сечин: «Роснефть» подписала соглашение о выкупе 100% акций ТНК-BP.

22.10.2012, Москва 15:13:57 «Роснефть» подписала соглашение с BP и AAR по выкупу акций ТНК-BP, сообщил глава «Роснефти» Игорь Сечин.
ссылка: http://www.rbc.ru/rbcfreenews/20121022151357.shtml  

BP объявила о предварительных договоренностях по продаже 50% ТНК-ВP «Роснефти».

22.10.2012, Москва 15:09:45 Британская BP заключила предварительное соглашение с НК «Роснефть» о продаже ей 50% российско-британского совместного предприятия ТНК-BP, сообщается в пресс-релизе BP. Сделка будет оплачена деньгами и акциями — из расчета 17,1 млрд долл. наличными плюс 19,75% акционерного капитала «Роснефти» (включая 5,66% акций, которые она выкупит у правительства РФ, и имеющиеся у BP 1,25% акций «Роснефти»)
ссылка: http://www.rbc.ru/rbcfreenews/20121022150945.shtml 

Войти по-английски: как акционеры «Альфы» 14 лет выращивали THK-BP, чтобы продать ее за один год Игорю Сечину

Глава «Роснефти» Игорь Сечин на прошлой неделе ездил в Лондон и лично предложил ВР заключить сделку. Совет директоров британской компании в воскресенье принял решение о продаже 50% в THK-BP. В результате такой сделки выиграют и покупатель — «Роснефть», и продавец. Британцы получат столь необходимые им средства (до 13 млрд долл.) и наконец-то закончат бесконечные склоки с российскими олигархами
Читать полностью: http://www.rbcdaily.ru/2012/10/22/tek/562949984975664   

 ВР и «Альфа»: история партнерства

Как развивались взаимоотношения британского и российского совладельцев ТНК-BP
Читайте далее: http://www.vedomosti.ru/  

Владельцы компаний с выручкой более $1 млрд

Почти таким же многообразием активов могут похвастать бенефициары «Альфа-групп» – Михаил Фридман, Герман Хан и Алексей Кузьмичев. Они опосредованно являются владельцами ТНК-BP, «Вымпелкома», «Мегафона» и Альфа-банка. Но в отличие от «Базового элемента» «Альфа-групп» ни в одной из компаний не владеет контрольным пакетом акций, хотя и наращивает свою долю в акционерном капитале «Вымпелкома». От группы Михаила Фридмана уже давно ждут продажи акций ТНК-BP одному из государственных нефтегазовых холдингов, однако акционеры пока предпочитают держать при себе «курицу, несущую золотые яица». Остается «Альфа-групп» и владельцем блокирующего пакета «Мегафона», хотя в тот момент, когда группа только купила долю в сотовом операторе, ей предрекали большие проблемы и столкновение с «питерскими связистами».
ссылка: http://www.compromat.ru/page_21478.htm

Миноритарии ТНК-ВР жалуются на произвол полиции

Один из истцов — миноритарий холдинга Андрей Прохоров — «под давлением со стороны сотрудников оперативно-розыскной части при УМВД России по Тюменской области был вынужден подписать заявление об отсутствии претензий к компании ВР и ее должностным лицам», говорят в бюро «Линия права».
ссылка: http://ru-compromat.livejournal.com/460573.html

Суд направил на новое рассмотрение иск миноритария ТБХ Андрея Прохорова против ВР

Федеральный арбитражный суд Западно-Сибирского округа направил на новое рассмотрение иск миноритария «ТНК-ВР холдинга» (ТБХ) Андрея Прохорова к ВР и ее «дочке» о возмещении ущерба в 409 млрд руб. ($13,6 млрд). Дело рассмотрит Арбитражный суд Тюменской области, который 18 ноября 2011 г. Прохорову отказал. 12 марта 2012 г. решение областного арбитража подтвердил Восьмой арбитражный апелляционный суд.
ссылка: http://www.vedomosti.ru

Миноритариев ТНК-BP подговорили юристы

Миноритарные акционеры «ТНК-ВР Холдинга» Андрей Прохоров, Олег Гавриленко, Евгений Филиппов, Светлана Родина, Владимир Сохненко и Эдуард Клаус более полугода назад подали иски против членов совета директоров «ТНК-ВР Холдинга» Питера Энтони Чероу и Ричарда Скотта Слоана, а также материнских компаний холдинга — BP plc. и BP Russian Investments Limited. В иске указывалось, что по вине ВР и двух ее топ-менеджеров «ТНК-ВР Холдинг» понес убытки из-за несостоявшейся сделки между «Роснефтью» и британской компанией в размере более 400 млрд руб. Российские суды требования миноритариев не поддержали.
ссылка: http://pda.rbcdaily.ru/2012/03/20/tek/562949983297050_news.shtml

ТНК-ВР не присоединится к иску миноритария Прохорова

Руководство «ТНК-ВР Холдинг» отказалось присоединиться к иску миноритарного акционера ТНК-BP Андрея Прохорова, который требует дочерние компании BP возместить ему 13,6 млрд долларов ущерба от несостоявшегося партнерства с «Роснефтью».
ссылка: http://www.bbc.co.uk/russian/business/2011/10/111024_tnk_bp_lawsuit.shtml

Суд прекратил производство по иску ВР о взыскании 9,4 млн руб убытков с миноритария ТНК-ВР

Арбитражный суд Тюменской области прекратил производство по иску BP Exploration Operating Company Limited о взыскании с миноритарного акционера «ТНК-ВР Холдинга» Андрея Прохорова 9,4 миллиона рублей убытков, вызванных обеспечительными мерами, сообщили агентству РАПСИ в суде.
ссылка: http://www.ufssplo.ru/main/2012/05/

Миноритарий ТНК-ВР увеличил требования к ВР до 409 млрд рублей

Миноритарный акционер ОАО «ТНК-ВР Холдинг» Андрей Прохоров в четверг на заседании Арбитражного суда Тюменской области увеличил сумму исковых требований к компаниям BP Russian Investments Limited и BP p.l.c., до 409,285 млрд рублей, сообщил агентству РАПСИ представитель истца в суде Дмитрий Чепуренко.
ссылка: http://mybusinesstyle.blogspot.com/2012/03/minoritariy-tnk-vr-uvelichil.html

Уход Шредера из ТНК-BP помешал компании судиться с акционерами

Кроме консорциума AAR, претензии к BP предъявляли и миноритарные акционеры «ТНК-BP Холдинга» (владеет активами ТНК-BP). В августе 2011 года несколько миноритариев во главе с Андреем Прохоровым подали иски в суд на директоров ТНК-BP, чтобы возместить ущерб от несостоявшейся сделки с «Роснефтью». В конце 2011 года трое из шести миноритарных акционеров, подавших иски против менеджеров и материнской компании ТНК-BP, в том числе и Андрей Прохоров, отказались от своих претензий.
ссылка: http://lenta.ru/news/2012/01/17/delay/

ТНК-ВР. Кто стоит в тени тюменского заговора? Провинциальный судья в центре международного скандала

К сожалению, подобные действия были санкционированы определением суда Тюменской области, вынесенным в рамках поданного летом иска миноритарием (акционером-копеечником) компании «ТНК-ВР Холдинг» неким жителем Тюмени Прохоровым Андреем. Речь шла о совместном обмене акциями — британцы должны были получить почти 10% «Роснефти» в обмен на 5% ВР. Акционера не устроило что в результате саботажа сделки со стороны «BP» «Роснефть» потеряла миллиарды долларов…
ссылка: http://www.golosa.info/node/5629

Прохоров проиграл в Омске суд с ТНК-BP

Группа миноритариев ТНК-BP во главе с российским инженером-электриком Андреем Прохоровым с 2011 года пытаются доказать в суде свою упущенную финансовую выгоду. Прохоров обвиняет топ-менеджером холдинга Питера Энтони Черроу и Ричарда Скотта Слоана в том, что они воспрепятствовали альянсу BP с «Роснефтью». В результате этого, по оценкам миноритариев, в целом они не смогли приобрести от сделки порядка 16 млрд. долларов. По данным The Guardian, Прохоров владеет 0.0000106% акций ТНК-BP. Иск рассматривался в Восьмом арбитражном суде Омска.
ссылка: http://omskpress.ru/news/29024/proxorov_proigral_v_omske_sud_s_tnk_bp/

ТНК-ВР: Максим Барский или Павел Скитович

Основные акционеры ТНК-ВР, Альфа-Access/Renova и ВР, объявили о достижении соглашения, согласно которому два независимых менеджера – Павел Скитович, бывший глава «Полюс Золото», и Максим Барский, ранее управляющий директор West Siberian Resources – займут высокие руководящие должности в компании с перспективой назначения на пост главного управляющего директора ТНК-ВР до конца года. Пока же бразды правления отданы в руки председателя совета директоров ТНК-ВР Михаила Фридмана.
ссылка: http://www.finansmag.ru/news/18634

Встречи не состоялось

BP проигнорировала заседание совета директоров ТНК-BP, где могла быть утверждена новая схема стратегического альянса с «Роснефтью». На встречу не пришли Тони Хейворд, Дэвид Питти, Брайан Гилвари и лорд Ротбертсон Порт-Элленский. Менеджмент российско-британского СП претендовал на участие в международном объединении. Следующую попытку договориться акционеры ТНК-ВР предпримут 4 марта в Берлине. Официальный представитель BP в России Владимир Буянов уточнил, что компания попросила отложить заседание совета директоров, предупредив об этом «не сегодня», и перенести его с 25 февраля на 4 марта. «Такая договоренность уже достигнута. Нужно больше времени на изучение документов», — пояснил Буянов.
ссылка: http://www.arcticuniverse.com/ru/pr/00595.html

BP не дала

BP игнорировала заседание совета директоров ТНК-BP, на котором могла быть утверждена новая схема стратегического альянса с «Роснефтью». Менеджмент российско-британского СП претендовал на участие в международном объединении. Следующую попытку договориться акционеры ТНК-ВР предпримут 4 марта в Берлине.
ссылка: http://pda.gazeta.ru/business/2011/02/25/3537345.shtml

Британский министр считает сделку «Роснефти» и ВР хорошим примером

Министр торговли и инвестиций Великобритании лорд Стивен Грин позитивно оценивает сделку между российской компанией «Роснефть» и британской компанией ВР.
ссылка: http://www.vedomosti.ru

 BP проведет buyback объемом $4 млрд на деньги «Роснефти»

Британская нефтегазовая корпорация BP намерена осуществить обратный выкуп акций общей стоимостью $4 млрд, используя денежные средства, полученные от продажи доли в ТНК-ВР «Роснефти», сообщает Financial Times. Таким образом BP намерена поддержать акционеров, чьи инвестиции в компанию обесценились почти на 30% с момента катастрофы в Мексиканском заливе в 2010 г.
Читайте далее: http://www.vedomosti.ru/

Президент «Роснефти» Игорь Сечин примирил акционеров ТНК-BP

Консорциум AAR и британская BP договорились об урегулировании всех существующих разногласий, включая иски, ранее поданные друг против друга
ссылка:http://www.vedomosti.ru/companies/news/6044291/rosneft_mirotvorec   

Cовладелец ТНК-ВР Герман Хан о сделке с «Роснефтью»: «Это же не футбол — это бизнес»

В ближайшее время нефтяная компания ТНК-ВР будет поглощена государственной «Роснефтью» — российский консорциум AAR и британская ВР продадут ей свои доли. За девять лет работы на рынке акционерам удалось создать третью по величине нефтяную компанию со стабильным ростом добычи, приносящую владельцам самые высокие дивиденды в отрасли.
Читать полностью: http://www.rbcdaily.ru/2012/11/12/tek/562949985111852

ВР получит деньги за акции ТНК-ВР первой

Российские акционеры компании продадут свою долю только после британцев — таково соглашение между «Роснефтью» и акционерами BP
ссылка: http://www.vedomosti.ru/companies/news/5481201/bp_vyjdet_pervoj

 Путин: Мы не смогли сказать BP «нет»

Президент сказал, что в Кремле были «смешанные чувства» по поводу покупки «Роснефтью» 50% BP в ТНК-BP: о сделке попросила именно британская компания
ссылка: http://www.vedomosti.ru/companies/news/5429151/putin_my_ne_smogli_skazat_bp_net  

 Путин рассказал, как Кремль готовил сделку Роснефти с BP

На встрече с иностранными экспертами дискуссионного клуба «Валдай» президент России признался, что у Кремля вначале были смешанные чувства по поводу этой сделки (госсектор расширял присутствие на рынке), но отказать BP было нельзя. «Иначе это выглядело бы так, как будто мы запихиваем BP под наше ТНК — ведь в руководстве компании ТНК-BP постоянно шла борьба, порой переходящая врукопашную», — пояснил он.
Читать полностью: http://www.rbcdaily.ru/2012/10/25/focus/562949985004002  

 ВР может получить 20% акций «Роснефти»
По неофициальным данным, «Роснефть» подала заявку на выкуп 50-процентной доли ВР в нефтяной компании ТНК-ВР. В результате сделки британцы могут увеличить свою долю в «Роснефти» за счет казначейских акций и акций, принад­лежащих государству, до 20% и стать крупнейшим ее акционером после российского правительства.
Читать полностью: http://www.rbcdaily.ru/2012/10/19/tek/562949984958864

И.Сечин: BP сделало «Роснефти» предложение по увеличению доли в капитале.

21.09.2012, Москва 12:44:51 BP сделало ряд предложений «Роснефти», в том числе по увеличению доли в уставном капитале «Роснефти. Об этом сообщил журналистам президент «Роснефти» Игорь Сечин в рамках инвестиционного форума в Сочи.
ссылка: http://www.rbc.ru/

«Роснефть» намерена стать партнером «Альфы» и «Реновы» 

Перспективы нефтяной компании ВР в России Владимир Путин обсуждал не только с ее топ-менеджерами, но и с президентом «Роснефти» Игорем Сечиным
ссылка : http://www.vedomosti.ru/

«Роснефть»: Приобретение доли в ТНК-ВР даст значительный синергетический эффект.

РБК 25.07.2012, Москва 14:50:06 Теоретическое приобретение ОАО «Роснефть» доли британской BP в ТНК-ВР даст значительный синергетический эффект для компаний в области разведки и добычи углеводородов в Восточной Сибири, развитии газового бизнеса, оптимизации логистики нефти и нефтепродуктов и других областях. Такое мнение РБК высказал представитель «Роснефти».
ссылка: http://www.rbc.ru/rbcfreenews/

Эверт Хенкес назначен Независимым Директором от BP в Совет Директоров ТНК-ВР

ТНК-BP объявила о том, что Эверт Хенкес (Evert Henkes) назначен в Совет директоров ТНК-BP Limited в качестве независимого директора от BP. Г-н Хенкес стал 10-м членом Совета директоров ТНК-BP Limited и вторым из трех независимых директоров в составе Совета. Он будет работать совместно с Александром Шохиным, который является независимым директором, номинированным от AAR.
ссылка: http://www.tnk-bp.ru

ТНК-ВР ищет третьего для кворума

Вчера ТНК-ВР сообщила, что в качестве второго независимого директора в совет TNK-BP Limited вошел Эверт Хенкес. Его номинировала BP. От российских акционеров компании, консорциума AAR, в совет входит Александр Шохин. Теперь компаниям предстоит выбрать общего третьего независимого директора для полного формирования совета директоров и восстановления кворума.

Как пояснил председатель совета директоров ТНК-ВР Михаил Фридман, сейчас компании «продолжают совместную работу по поиску кандидатов на позицию третьего независимого директора с целью приведения структуры корпоративного управления в соответствие с требованиями соглашения акционеров ТНК-BP в максимально короткие сроки». Соглашение было подписано в середине февраля, и предполагалось, что совет директоров будет сформирован до конца мая. Однако сейчас четких сроков нет.
ссылка: http://www.kommersant.ru/

BP сменила топ-менеджера в Азербайджане после претензий по добыче

Британский нефтегазовый гигант BP в пятницу сменил Рашида Джаваншира в должности главы регионального подразделения, отвечающего за Азербайджан, Турцию и Грузию, вслед за критикой со стороны Баку по поводу падения добычи.
ссылка: http://www.vedomosti.ru

 Зарубежная пресса о сделке «Роснефти» с ВР: Сечин стал вторым человеком в государстве

Нефтяной гигант нужен Путину как никогда: «Газпром» теряет влияние, а «Роснефть» позволит президенту хотя бы отчасти выполнить предвыборные обещания
ссылка: http://www.vedomosti.ru

Глава BP за то, чтобы продать «Роснефти» долю в ТНК-BP

Главный исполнительный директор British Petroleum Роберт Дадли на сегодняшнем заседании Совета директоров BP намерен рекомендовать принять предложение «Роснефти» о продаже ей доли британцев в ТНК-BP, сообщает газета The Guardian.
ссылка: http://top.rbc.ru/economics/19/10/2012/675144.shtml

ААР может продать свои акции в СП с BP третьей стороне или вывести ТНК-BP на IPO.

 09.10.2012, Москва 04:57:23 Российский акционер компании ТНК-BP — консорциум ААР — может продать свои акции в этом совместном с британской BP предприятии третьей стороне или вывести ТНК-BP на IPO, передает радиостанция «Эхо Москвы» со ссылкой на сообщение источника, близкого к ААР. Как отмечается, при этом продолжается работа над предложением ААР о выкупе доли британского акционера в совместном предприятии. Продажа акций третьей стороне или выход на IPO возможны в случае отказа BP от предложения продать свою долю российскому акционеру.
ссылка: http://www.rbc.ru/rbcfreenews/20121009045723.shtml

ААР отклонил предложение ВР о выплате дополнительных дивидендов

Представители консорциума ААР («Альфа Групп», «Аксесс Индастриз», «Ренова Групп») в совете директоров ТНК-ВР проголосовали против предложения ВР о выплате их совместным предприятием — ТНК-ВР — дополнительных дивидендов в размере 1 млрд долл., говорится в сообщении консорциума ААР.
ссылка :http://top.rbc.ru/economics/

МЭР: Покупка «Роснефтью» доли ВР в ТНК-ВР потребует одобрения правительства РФ.

24.07.2012, Москва 17:43:01 Возможная сделка по покупке «Роснефтью» доли ВР в ТНК-ВР потребует одобрения правительства России. Об этом сообщил сегодня журналистам глава Министерства экономического развития РФ Андрей Белоусов. По его словам, в настоящее время есть поручение президента РФ по разработке порядка, при котором решение о покупках госкомпаниями активов должно приниматься на уровне правительства.
ссылка: http://www.rbc.ru/rbcfreenews 

BP планирует переговоры о продаже доли в ТНК-ВР параллельно с переговорами с ААР.
РБК 19.07.2012, Лондон 09:21:28 Британский акционер ТНК-ВР — BP планирует вести переговоры с заинтересованными сторонами о продаже своей доли в ТНК-ВР параллельно с переговорным процессом с консорциумом Альфа Групп/Аксесс/Ренова (ААР). Такое заявление распространила BP. Напомним, накануне консорциум ААР официально уведомил BP о намерении вступить в переговоры о выкупе 25% акций их совместного предприятия — ТНК-BP. Согласно акционерному соглашению ТНК-BP, с этого момента у ААР и BP есть 90 дней на ведение переговоров
ссылка :http://www.rbc.ru

Миноритарии «ТНК-BP Холдинг» отозвали иск к BP на 288 млрд руб.

Миноритарии «ТНК-BP холдинг» направили в суд заявление об отказе от иска к BP на 288 млрд руб., рассказал «Ведомостям» партнер «Линии права» Дмитрий Чепуренко, представляющий интересы одного из них — Андрея Прохорова.
ссылка: http://www.vedomosti.ru

США и BP заключили сделку: компания признает вину, а минюст закроет уголовное дело о разливе нефти

Британская нефтегазовая компания British Petroleum признала вину в предъявляемых ей обвинениях по делу об аварии платформы Deep Horizon в Мексиканском заливе в 2010 году и выплатит в течение пяти лет $4,5 млрд сверх той суммы, которая уже взыскана с корпорации. В обмен на это министерство юстиции США снимет с компании все обвинения в федеральных уголовных преступлениях.
ссылка: http://www.gazeta.ru/business/news/2012/11/15/n_2618525.shtml

Конфликт с BP, создание «Союза миллиардеров» в России свидетельствуют об изоляции Алиевского режима

Последний ход событий, формирующий противостояние с нефтяным покровителем алиевского режима – компанией «British petroleum», нейтрализация британского лоббиста принца Эндрю, учреждение альтернативной диаспорской организации состоятельными азербайджанцами России, кризис в отношениях с ЕС, США, РФ, свидетельствуют о нарастающей изоляции режима, сказано в статье.

«Напряженность в отношениях с этими силами, которые сыграли решительную роль в приходе Алиева к власти в 2003 году и его возвеличивании вплоть до очередных выборов 2008 года, сокращает его шансы в 2013 году как шагреневая кожа», – говорится в материале.
ссылка: http://www.yerkramas.org/2012/12/03

Федеральные власти США решили временно прекратить заключение новых контрактов с компанией BP

Федеральные власти США решили временно прекратить заключение новых контрактов с компанией «Бритиш петролеум» /Би-пи, BP/ и ее дочерними структурами в связи с неудовлетворенностью их действиями, относящимися к ликвидации последствий аварии на буровой платформе «Дипуотер хорайзон» в Мексиканском заливе, которая произошла в 2010 году. Об этом объявила сегодня пресс- служба американского федерального Агентства по охране окружающей среды.
ссылка: http://www.itar-tass.com/c16/584002.html

Нефтегазовая BP отстранена от заключения контрактов с правительством США

Британская нефтегазовая компания BP Рlc и ее аффилированные компании временно отстранены от заключения новых контрактов с правительством США из-за разлива нефти в Мексиканском залива в 2010 г. Об этом говорится в сообщении Агентства по охране окружающей среды США (Environmental Protection Agency — EPA).
ссылка: http://www.rbc.ua/rus/top

«Газпром» и British Petroleum начали переговоры по проекту Nord Stream

Представители компаний «Газпром» и British Petroleum приступили к переговорам о поставках газа в Великобританию, пишет 26 ноября Wall Street Journal.
ссылка: http://www.km.ru/economics/2012/11/26/gazprom/698124-gazprom-i-british-petroleum-nachali-peregovory-po-proektu-nord-s

Гендиректор British Petroleum Бернард Луни объявил о немедленной отставке в связи с тем, что он не захотел раскрывать информацию о личных отношениях с коллегами по компании.

По данным BP, врио будет назначен финдиректор компании Мюррей Ошинклосс.

Весной прошлого года правление наняло юриста, чтобы провести внутреннее расследование относительно поведения Луни с его коллегами. В ходе проверок он сообщил о связях с работниками до того, как возглавил компанию.

«Никаких нарушений Кодекса поведения компании обнаружено не было. Однако правление запросило и получило гарантии от мистера Луни относительно раскрытия информации о прошлых личных отношениях, а также о его поведении в будущем», — заявили в компании.

Затем была получена новая аналогичная информация, в связи с чем проверки были возобновлены. Луни признался, что не полностью раскрыл подробности прошлой весной.

Луни возглавил компанию в 2020 году, сменив на этом посту Роберта Дадли.

Ранее сообщалось, что зарубежные компании в прошлом году потеряли почти $58 млрд на фоне падения активов в РФ. Тогда лидерами по убыткам стала британская BP и французская TotalEnergies.

BP
Type	Public (LSE: BP) (NYSE: BP)
Founded	1908 (as the Anglo-Persian Oil Company) 1954 (as The British Petroleum Company)
Headquarters	London, England, UK
Key people	Peter Sutherland (Chairman) Tony Hayward (CEO) Byron Grote (CFO)
Area served	Worldwide
Industry	Oil and Natural Gas, Alternative fuel
Products	BP petroleum and derived products BP service stations Air BP Aviation Fuels Castrol motor oil ARCO gas stations am/pm convenience stores Aral service stations
Revenue	US$ 291.438 Billion (2007)
Operating income	US$ 32.352 Billion (2007)
Net income	US$ 20.845 Billion (2007)
Employees	96,200 (2008)[1]
Website	www.bp.com

BP p.l.c., previously known as British Petroleum, is the third largest global energy company, a multinational oil company («oil major») with headquarters in London. The company is among the largest private sector energy corporations in the world, and one of the six «supermajors» (vertically integrated private sector oil exploration, natural gas, and petroleum product marketing companies). The Company is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. In 2007, BP’s revenues were over $291 billion, and it employed 97,600 workers in 100 countries and maintained a network of 24,100 gas stations. BP and its subsidiaries are also engaged in the manufacture of chemicals, plastics, synthetic fibers, and animal-feed products.

BP began as the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, Ltd., registered in 1909 to extract and refine oil from an oil-field concession in Iran. In 1914, the British government purchased a majority share in the company, and World War I soon established the importance of a reliable national oil supply. By 1938, Anglo-Iranian’s refinery at Abadan was the largest in the world. Following World War II, the refinery was temporarily shut down when the Iranian parliament voted to nationalize the oil fields in 1951, and re-opened under an international consortium in 1953. The company name was changed to The British Petroleum Company in 1954.

During the 1970s, political changes in the Middle East forced major adjustments in the oil industry, and the British Petroleum Company began to develop its oil reserves in Alaska and the North Sea. In the 1990s, acknowledging the threat of global warming, the company began a campaign to develop its image as an environmentally responsible corporation, changed its name to BP, and increased its investment in alternative sources of energy. In 1998, it merged with Amoco (formerly Standard Oil of Indiana) and in 2000, acquired Arco (Atlantic Richfield Company) and Burmah Castrol to become one of the largest oil companies in the world. In the oil industry it has demonstrated the viability of cutting emissions and reducing its impact on the environment. BP has been involved in a number of political and environmental controversies. Several accidents and spills associated with its production of oil in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, have justified concerns that drilling for oil in the Alaskan wilderness will cause damage to the environment.

History

Origins

In 1900, Sir Henry Drummond Wolff, a former British minister to Teheran, approached William Knox D’Arcy, a wealthy owner of mining interests in Australia, to invest in Persian oil exploration. In May 1901, D’Arcy was granted a concession by the Shah of Iran to search for oil over 480,000 sq. miles (1,243,195 km²) in Iran. D’Arcy agreed to finance the search, and sent George Reynolds and a team of explorers to Shardin, Iran. By 1905 he had invested his entire fortune and there were still no signs of oil. In May 1905, the British-owned Burmah Oil Company took over the rights to his concession in return for 170,000 Burmah Oil shares and a payment to cover expenses D’Arcy had incurred.^[2]
Oil was discovered on May 26, 1908, the first commercially significant find in the Middle East. On April 14, 1909, the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC) was incorporated to exploit the new oil field.^[2] On the day Anglo-Persian stock opened for trading in London and Glasgow, investors waited five deep in front of the cashiers at a Scottish bank to buy shares in the new company.^[3]

The Field of Naphtha oilfield was 210 kilometers from Abadan, at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, where Anglo-Persian was building an oil refinery. It took two years to build a pipeline across the rugged mountains. Segments of pipe imported from the United States were carried upriver by barge, then dragged by mules and finally by laborers where the land was too steep for animals to pass. At its completion, the Abadan refinery was the world’s largest, supported by a workforce of fitters, riveters, masons and clerks from India, carpenters from China and semi-skilled workers from the surrounding Arab countries.

By 1914, the Anglo-Persian project was nearly bankrupt; it could not find a market for its oil. Automobiles were too expensive to be widely used, and more established companies in Europe and the United States had cornered the market in industrial oils. The Persian oil’s strong, sulfurous stench made it unsuitable as kerosene for home heating, one of the primary uses for oil at the time. Anglo-Persian executives had repeatedly approached the British Royal Navy as a prospective customer for its oil, but conservative politicians were reluctant to endorse the use of oil instead of coal for fuel. Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty, thought Britain needed a dedicated oil supply, and he argued the case in Parliament, urging his colleagues to “look out upon the wide expanse of the oil regions of the world!” Only the British-owned Anglo-Persian Oil Company, he said, could protect British interests. Parliament passed the resolution with an overwhelming majority, and the British government became a major shareholder in the company. World War I began just two weeks later, establishing the importance of a reliable supply of oil for military dominance.

British Petroleum

The British Petroleum brand had originally been created by a German oil company as a way of marketing its products in Britain. During World War I, the British government seized the German company’s assets, and sold them to Anglo-Persian in 1917. Anglo-Persian gained an instant distribution network in the UK, including 520 depots, 535 railway tank wagons, 1,102 road vehicles, four barges and 650 horses. As the war was ending, the Royal Navy complained that Anglo-Persian oil was causing engine problems in colder climates. Anglo-Persian bought an eighteenth century mansion at Sunbury-on-Thames, near London, and set up a scientific research laboratory in the basement.

During the two decades following World War I, gas and electricity largely replaced kerosene for home heating, and gasoline-fueled delivery vehicles began to compete with railways in transporting freight. Mass-produced cars flooded out of factories in Europe and the United States. Gasoline pumps bearing the BP label appeared around Britain, often flying little Union Jacks as a patriotic flourish. There were 69 pumps in Britain in 1921, and over 6,000 by 1925. The “BP” letters also became a familiar sight on the continent, as Anglo-Persian entered the European market.

In 1935, Persia changed its name to Iran, and Anglo-Persian Oil Company became the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC).

World War II

When Britain entered World War II in 1939, gasoline was rationed and BP, Shell and the other brands on sale in the UK were consolidated into a generic fuel labeled «Pool.» BP’s activities on the continent stopped abruptly. Anglo-Iranian employees became involved in innovative schemes, such as burning petrol at British airstrips to clear fog for take-offs and landings and helping to engineer the giant, spooled gasoline pipeline that trailed Allied ships on their way to Normandy.

Anglo-Iranian had recently found a way to improve the efficiency of aviation fuel. The quantity of fuel needed by the British Air Force could only be made by refitting the Abadan refinery in Iran, but the three ships carrying supplies for the refit were sunk. During the war, 44 of the company’s tankers were sunk, killing 657 crew members; another 260 were taken prisoners of war. The British government asked Anglo-Iranian to find more oil on British soil, and production at a field in Nottingham, England was increased.

Nationalization in Iran

As Europe rebuilt after World War II, Anglo-Iranian invested in refineries in France, Germany, and Italy and initiated new marketing efforts in Switzerland, Greece,Scandinavia, and the Netherlands. BP gasoline went on sale for the first time in New Zealand.^[4]

In the Middle East, nationalists questioned Western companies’ right to profit from Middle Eastern resources. AIOC and the government of Iran initially resisted nationalist pressure to revise AIOC’s concession terms still further in Iran’s favor. In March 1951, the pro-western Prime Minister of Iran, Ali Razmara, was assassinated.^[5] The Majlis of Iran (parliament) elected a nationalist, Dr. Mohammed Mossadeq, as prime minister. In April, the Majlis voted unanimously to nationalize the oil industry. The British government contested the nationalization at the International Court of Justice at The Hague, but its complaint was dismissed.^[6] All political debate exhausted, Anglo-Iranian’s expatriate employees left Iran and the refinery was shut down. The British Royal Navy imposed a blockade around the country in order to force the Iranian regime to abandon the effort to nationalize its nation’s oil. Governments around the world boycotted Iranian oil. The boycotts, coupled with the inexperience of Iranian crews, greatly reduced the output of the oilfields in Iran.

Within 18 months, the Iranian economy was in ruins. On August 19, 1953, a coup by the Iranian military and royalists loyal to the Shah, backed by the British and United States governments, removed Mossadeq from office. He was replaced by pro-Western general Fazlollah Zahedi.^[7] The Shah, who had left the country briefly to await the outcome of the coup, returned to Iran. He abolished the democratic Constitution and assumed autocratic powers. An international consortium, National Iranian Oil Company was created to run the oil operations in Iran, with Anglo-Iranian Oil Company holding 40 percent of the shares, five major American companies including Standard Oil of Indiana (Amoco) holding another 40 percent, and Royal Dutch Shell and Compagnie Française des Pétroles, now Total S.A. holding 20 percent. The consortium agreed to share 50 percent of the profits with Iran, but not to allow interference in its business affairs.^[8]

In 1954, the board changed the company’s name to The British Petroleum Company.^[4] BP continued to operate in Iran until the Islamic Revolution in 1979. The new regime of Ayatollah Khomeini confiscated all of BP’s assets in Iran without compensation, ending BP’s 70-year presence in Iran.

Expansion beyond the Middle East

In 1955, British Petroleum became a holding company. In 1959, British Petroleum Company began exploration in Alaska^[9] and in 1965, it was the first company to strike oil in the North Sea.^[10] In 1970, its North Sea crews found the Forties field, which could produce 400,000 barrels of crude oil a day.

In 1965, BP found natural gas in the English Channel, enough to power a medium-sized city.^[11]

During the 1970s, political changes in the Middle East, which began with Muammar al-Ghaddafi’s rise to power in Libya in a military coup in 1971, forced major adjustments in the oil industry. The same year, after Britain withdrew its military presence in Iran, Iran seized some small Arab Islands near the Strait of Hormuz and Ghaddafi retaliated by nationalizing BP’s interests in Libyan oil production. Several oil-rich nations including Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, and Qatar announced their intention to nationalize their oil resources within the next 10 years.^[11] BP’s shipments of oil from the Middle East dropped from 140 million tones in 1975 to 500,000 tonnes in 1983. Over the same period, Middle Eastern oil, which had once comprised 80 percent of BP’s total production, declined to just 10 percent of its total output.

British Petroleum began to concentrate on developing its production of oil in other parts of the world. Its engineers designed production platforms with legs tall enough to perch above the rough waters of the North Sea, and robust enough to withstand the harsh winters. In 1975, oil began to flow through the largest deepwater pipeline ever constructed, to a terminal at Firth of Forth. The 1,200 kilometer Trans-Alaska pipeline system was the largest civil engineering project ever attempted in North America, and one of the most carefully watched. The final designs for the pipeline included long above ground stretches so that the warm oil passing through would not melt the permafrost and raised areas at caribou crossings to ensure that migration habits wouldn’t be disturbed.^[11]

BP had no refineries or gas stations in the United States to process or market the Alaska oil. In 1978, BP acquired a 25 percent stake in Standard Oil of Ohio or Sohio, a spin-off of the former Standard Oil which had been broken up after anti-trust litigation. In 1987, BP bought the company outright, incorporating it into a new company, BP America.^[11]

1980s and 1990s

Between 1979 and 1987, the British government sold its entire holding in BP in several tranches.^[12] During the sale process, an attempt by the Kuwait Investment Office, the investment arm of the Kuwait government, to acquire control of BP^[13] was blocked by the strong opposition of the British government. In 1987, British Petroleum negotiated the acquisition of Britoil^[14] and those shares of Standard Oil of Ohio (Sohio) not already owned.

Recent years

British Petroleum merged with Amoco (formerly Standard Oil of Indiana) in December 1998,^[15] becoming BPAmoco until 2000, when it was renamed BP. Most Amoco gas stations in the United States have changed to the look and name of the BP brand. In many states, however, BP still sells Amoco-branded gasoline, rated the #1 petroleum brand by consumers 16 years in a row. In May 2008, the Amoco name was largely phased out in favor of «BP Gasoline with Invigorate,» to promote BP’s new additive. The highest grade of BP gasoline available in the United States is still called Amoco Ultimate.

In 2000, British Petroleum acquired Arco (Atlantic Richfield Company)^[16] and Burmah Castrol plc.^[17]

In April 2004, BP moved most of its petrochemical businesses into a separate entity called Innovene within the BP Group, intending to sell the new company as an Initial Public Offering (IPO) on the New York Stock Exchange. On October 7, 2005, BP announced the sale of Innovene to INEOS, a privately-held UK chemical company for the sum of $9 billion (£5bn).^[18]

BP has recently increased its oil exploration activities in frontier areas like the former Soviet Union. In Russia, BP owns 50 percent of TNK-BP, with the other half owned by three Russian billionaires. TNK-BP accounts for a fifth of BP’s global reserves, a quarter of BP’s production, and nearly a tenth of its global profits.^[19] BP has been involved in the economic development of Vietnam since 1986.^[20] By the end of 2007, with partners Petrochina and Sinopec, BP had developed approximately 1,000 outlets in China.

Environmental record

Under the guidance of Lord John Browne, who became Chief Executive Officer of BP in 1995, BP began a massive campaign in 1997, to reinvent its public image as a company that is concerned about environmental issues and to prepare for a future when oil will be replaced by other sources of energy. The company shortened its name from British Petroleum to BP, coined the slogan Beyond Petroleum (The company states that BP was never meant to be an abbreviation of its tagline.) and redesigned its corporate logo. The British Petroleum shield that had been a familiar image in Britain for more than 70 years was replaced with a green, yellow and white sunburst^[21] intended to highlight the company’s interest in alternative and environmentally friendly fuels. The campaign drew a great deal of criticism from environmental groups, particularly as the company was simultaneously expanding through mergers and acquisitions to become the second-largest oil company in the world. In spite of the criticism, BP has led other oil companies in confronting the issue of global warming, seeking to reduce carbon emissions, and attempting to reduce the impact of its operations on the environment.

In 1996, BP/Amoco withdrew from the Global Climate Coalition, an industry organization established to promote skepticism about global warming, and offered its support to the Kyoto Protocol.^[22] In 1998, Browne publicly committed BP to cutting its carbon dioxide emissions by 10 percent below 1990 levels by the year 2010. To meet this target, BP set up a system in which each of its 150 business units, spread across more than 100 countries, was assigned a quota of emissions permits and encouraged to trade with one another. Each business unit could bring itself into compliance by cutting its own emissions or buying emissions credits from other units. If a unit made enough greenhouse-gas reductions to have leftover permits that could be sold to other business units, those savings were reflected in pay scales and bonuses at year’s end. The target was reached within two years with no net economic cost to the company, actively demonstrating that regulating carbon dioxide emissions according to the Kyoto Protocol was economically viable.^[21]

In 2005, BP was considering testing carbon sequestration in one of its North Sea oil fields, by capturing carbon dioxide from the natural gas burned at power plants in the UK and pumping it into depleted underground oil reservoirs, where it would have the added benefit of helping to force out the pockets of oil remaining underground.^[23] Carbon capture and burial, a process invented in 1980, is regarded by the United Nations and Inter-government Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as an important tool in the fight against global warming.^[24]

In 2004, BP began marketing low-sulfur diesel fuel for industrial use. BP intends to create a network of hydrogen fueling stations in the state of California. BP Solar has been a leading producer of solar panels since its purchase of Lucas Energy Systems in 1980 and Solarex (as part of its acquisition of Amoco) in 2000. In 2004, when it had a capacity to produce 90 MW/year of panels, BP Solar had a 20 percent world market share in photovoltaic panels. It has over 30 years’ experience operating in over 160 countries with manufacturing facilities in the U.S., Spain, India, and Australia, and has more than 2,000 employees worldwide.

By the end of 2007, BP had the potential total generating capacity of some 15,000 MW of wind power in the U.S.^[25]

In 1991, based on EPA toxic release data, BP was cited as the most polluting company in the United States. Since branding itself an environmentally sound corporation in 1997, BP has been fined $1.7 million for burning polluted gases at its Ohio refinery, and paid a $10 million fine to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency EPA in July 2000 and agreed to reduce air pollution coming from its U.S. refineries by tens of thousands of tons.^[26] According to PIRG (Public Interest Research Groups) research, between January 1997 and March 1998, BP was responsible for 104 oil spills.^[27]

BP patented the Dracone Barge, a flexible device that carries liquids across bodies of water, to aid in oil spill clean-ups across the world.^[28]

Texas City refinery explosion

On March 23, 2005, an explosion occurred at BP’s Texas City Refinery in Texas City, Texas, the third-largest refinery in the United States and one of the largest in the world, processing 433,000 barrels (68,800 m³) of crude oil per day and accounting for 3 percent of the U.S. gasoline supply. Over 100 were injured, and 15 were killed, including employees of the Fluor Corporation. BP has since acknowledged that its mismanagement contributed to the accident. Level indicators failed, leading to overfilling of a heater, and light hydrocarbons spread throughout the area. An unidentified ignition source set off the explosion.^[29]

Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill

The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion refers to the April 20, 2010 explosion and subsequent fire on the Deepwater Horizon semi-submersible Mobile Offshore Drilling Unit (MODU), which was owned and operated by Transocean and drilling for BP in the Macondo Prospect oil field about 40 miles (60 km) southeast of the Louisiana coast. The explosion killed 11 workers and injured 16 others. The explosion caused the Deepwater Horizon to burn and sink, resulting in a massive offshore oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the largest accidental release of oil into marine waters in history, resulted in severe environmental, health, and economic consequences, and serious legal and public relations repercussions for BP.

Corporate controversies

August 2006 Prudhoe Bay shutdown

In March 2006, a leak in one of BP’s pipelines on Alaska’s North Slope caused a spill of over one million liters of oil onto the tundra, leading BP to commit to replace over 16 miles (26 km) of federally regulated Oil Transit Lines (OTLs).^[30] The leak was the result of corrosion caused by sediment which had collected in the bottom of the pipe and protected corrosive bacteria from the chemicals sent through the pipeline to fight it. As of the end of 2007, one half of the pipeline had been replaced and all 16 miles (26 km) of pipeline are now tested regularly.^[31]

On July 19, 2006, BP announced the closure of the last 12 out of 57 oil wells in Alaska, mostly in Prudhoe Bay, that had been leaking an insulating agent, called an arctic pack, consisting of crude oil and diesel fuel, between the wells and ice.^[32]

Corporate challenges

In July 2006, a group of Colombian farmers won a settlement from BP after the British oil and gas company was accused of benefiting from a regime of terror carried out by Colombian government paramilitaries to protect a 450-mile (720 km) pipeline.^[33]

On February 11, 2007, BP announced that it would spend $8 billion over ten years to research alternative methods of fuel, including natural gas, hydrogen, solar, and wind. A $500 million grant to the University of California, Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, to create an «Energy Biosciences Institute»^[34] has recently come under attack, over concerns about the global impacts of the research and privatization of public universities.^[35]

BP Canada has been asked by leading environmental organizations to stop its proposed «Mist Mountain» Coalbed Methane Project in the Southern Rocky Mountains of British Columbia. The proposed 500 km² project is directly adjacent to the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park.^[36]

BP has been criticized for its involvement with the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, associated with human rights abuses, environmental and safety concerns.^[37]

Contributions to political campaigns

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, from 1990 to 2001, BP contributed more than US$5 million to political campaigns in the United States (72 percent to Republican and 28 percent to Democratic candidates), making it the United States’ 100th largest donor to political campaigns. BP has lobbied to gain exemptions from U.S. corporate law reforms.^[38] In February 2002, BP announced that it would no longer make political contributions from corporate funds anywhere in the world.^[39]

BP retail brands

ampm

«ampm» is a convenience store chain with branches located in several U.S. states including Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Illinois, Indiana, Georgia, and Florida, and in several countries worldwide such as Japan. In the western U.S., the stores are usually attached to an ARCO gas station; elsewhere, the stores are attached to BP gas stations. BP Connect stations in the U.S. are transitioning to the ampm brand.

ARCO

ARCO is BP’s retail brand on the US West Coast in the seven states of California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Idaho, Arizona, and Utah. BP acquired ARCO (formerly the AtlanticRichfield Company) in 1998. ARCO is a popular «cash only» retailer, selling products refined from Alaska North Slope crude at plants at Cherry Point (WA), Los Angeles (CA), and at other contract locations on the West Coast.

BP Travel Center

BP Travel Centers are large-scale destination sites located in Australia which on top of offering the same features of a BP Connect site with fuel and a Wild Bean Cafe, also feature major food-retail tenants such as McDonald’s, KFC, Nando’s, and recently Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, with a large seating capacity foodcourt. There are also facilities for long-haul truck drivers including lounge, showers and washing machines all in the same building.

BP Connect

BP Connect is BP’s flagship retail brand name. BP Connect Service stations operate around the UK, Europe, U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and other parts of the world. BP Connect sites feature the Wild Bean Cafe which offers café-style coffee made by the staff and a selection of hot food as well as freshly baked muffins and sandwiches. The food offered in Wild Bean Cafe varies at each site. BP Connect sites usually offer table-and-chair seating and often an Internet kiosk. In the U.S., the BP Connect concept is gradually being transitioned to the ampm brand and concept.

BP Express

BP Express was the flagship BP brand prior to the introduction of BP Connect in 2000. There are still some BP Express sites operating around the world but most have been either upgraded to Connect or changed to an alternative brand. BP Express offers a bakery service but doesn’t have the selection of food offered in the Wild Bean Café.

BP Shop

BP Shop is commonly used on smaller, mainly independently-owned sites. Products vary in each BP Shop but are usually a selection of convenience store food and automotive products.

BP 2go

BP 2go is a franchise brand used for independently operated sites, mainly in towns and outer suburbs, in New Zealand and is currently being rolled out throughout Australia (Not all BP 2go stores are franchises in Australia). BP 2go offers similar bakery food to BP Connect but in a pre-packaged form.

Air BP and BP Shipping

Air BP is the aviation fuel arm, BP Marine the marine fuels and lubricants arm and BP Shipping is the shipping arm within the BP group.

See also

• Natural gas
• Petroleum
• Energy

Notes

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Ferrier, R.W., and J. H. Bamberg. The History of the British Petroleum Company. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982. ISBN 0521246474.
• Meyer, Karl E., and Shareen Brysac. Kingmakers: The Invention of the Modern Middle East. W.W. Norton, 2008. ISBN 9780393061994.
• United States. BP Pipeline Failure: Hearing Before the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, United States Senate, One Hundred Ninth Congress, Second Session, to Receive Testimony Relating to the Effects of the BP Pipeline Failure in the Prudhoe Bay Oil Field on U.S. Oil Supply and to Examine What Steps may be Taken to Prevent a Recurrence of such an Event, September 12, 2006. Washington: U.S. G.P.O., 2007. ISBN 9780160780684.

External links

All links retrieved August 26, 2023.

• BP Company Website