BP

:This article is about the corporation known as BP. See also BP (disambiguation)

History

1909 - 1955

In May 1901, William Knox D'Arcy was granted a concession by the Shah of Persia to search for oil, which he found in May 1908. This was the first commercially significant find in the Middle East. In 1909, the Anglo-Persian Oil Company was created to exploit this find. The company grew slowly until World War I when its strategic importance led the British Government to acquire a controlling interest in the company and it became the Royal Navy's chief source of fuel oil during World War I.

Related Topics:
1901 - William Knox D'Arcy - Shah - Persia - 1908 - Middle East - 1909 - Anglo-Persian Oil Company - World War I

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In 1917, the war allowed it to take the British arm of the German Europäische Union, which used the trade name British Petroleum. After the war ended, the company, in which the British Government now had a 51% interest, moved to secure outlets in Europe and elsewhere. However, its main concern was still Persia, following the Anglo-Persian Agreement of 1919 the company continued to trade profitably in that country.

Related Topics:
1917 - Anglo-Persian Agreement of 1919

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In 1931, partly in response to the difficult economic conditions of the times, BP merged their marketing operations in the United Kingdom (only) with those of Shell-Mex Ltd to create Shell-Mex and BP Ltd a company that continued to trade until the Shell and BP brands separated again in 1975.

Related Topics:
United Kingdom - Shell-Mex and BP Ltd - Shell

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There was growing dissent within Persia however at the imperialist and unfair position that APOC occupied. In 1932, the Shah terminated the APOC concession. The concession was resettled within a year, covering a reduced area with an increase in the Persian government's share of profits. Persia was renamed Iran in 1936 and APOC became AIOC, the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company.

Related Topics:
1932 - Iran - 1936

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Following the turmoil of World War II, AIOC and the Iranian government resisted nationalist pressure to come to a renewed deal in 1949. In March 1951, the pro-western Prime Minister Ali Razmara was assassinated and in April, a bill was passed nationalising the oil industry and the AIOC and the Shah were forced to leave the country.

Related Topics:
World War II - 1949 - 1951 - Ali Razmara

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The AIOC took its case against the nationalisation to the International Court of Justice at The Hague, but lost the case. However the governments of Britain and the US were concerned about the encroachment of Soviet influence in the area and assisted in a plot against the Iranian administration. They installed pro-Western General Fazlollah Zahedi as prime minister of Iran.

Related Topics:
International Court of Justice - The Hague - Fazlollah Zahedi

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On August 19, 1953, the incumbent Prime Minister, Mohammed Mossadeq, was forced from office and replaced by Zahedi and the Shah was recalled. The AIOC became The British Petroleum Company in 1954, and briefly resumed operations in Iran with a forty per cent share in an new international consortium. BP continued to operate in Iran until the Islamic Revolution. However, due to a large investment programme outside Iran, the company survived the loss of its Iranian interests at that time.

Related Topics:
August 19 - 1953 - Mohammed Mossadeq - 1954 - Islamic Revolution

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1960s and 1970s

From the late 1960s the company looked beyond the Middle East to the USA (Prudhoe Bay, Alaska) and the North Sea. Both of these fields came on stream in the mid-1970s transforming the company and allowing BP to weather the OPEC-induced oil price shocks of 1973 and 1979. In 1969, BP acquired the Valdez oil terminal, Alaska, from the Chugach for $1. Some natives contend that this was an illegal transfer.

Related Topics:
Prudhoe Bay - Alaska - North Sea - OPEC - 1973 - 1979 - 1969 - Valdez oil terminal - Chugach - $

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In the mid-1970s, BP acquired Standard Oil of Ohio or Sohio.

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1980s and 1990s

P.I. Walters (later Sir Peter Walters) was BP's chairman from 1981 to 1990. Walters promoted a movement to deintegrate company operations based solely upon economic considerations: "For me, there is no strategy that is divorced from profitability," he once remarked. Under his chairmanship British Petroleum led the oil industry away from an era dominated by vertical integration and the supply planning this required toward a corporate culture that emphasised trading and decentralisation (Daniel Yergin, ' , pp. 722-23).

Related Topics:
Peter Walters - 1981 - 1990 - Profitability - Oil industry - Vertical integration - Corporate culture - Daniel Yergin

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In 1987, British Petroleum acquired Britoil and those shares of Standard Oil of Ohio (Sohio) not already owned. In 1994, BP and Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) began marketing Orimulsion®, a bitumen-based fuel. John Browne, Lord Browne of Madingley, who had been on the board as managing director since 1991, was appointed group chief executive in 1995.

Related Topics:
1987 - Britoil - Standard Oil of Ohio (Sohio) - 1994 - Petroleos de Venezuela - Orimulsion - Bitumen - John Browne - 1991 - 1995

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