British Petroleum (BP)

British Petroleum is the third largest publicly traded energy company in the world and the fourth largest company overall in terms of revenue. In 2010, BP had revenues of $308 billion and claimed total assets of $272 billion. BP employs over 79,000 people worldwide and is headquartered in London, England but has additional headquarters in Houston, Texas.

• Founded : 1909 (as Anglo-Persian Oil Company)
• 1935 (as Anglo-Iranian Oil Company)
• 1954 (as British Petroleum)
• 1998 (as BP Amoco plc)
• 2001 (as BP plc)
• Headquarter : London, UK
• Key people : Carl-Henric Svanberg (Chairman)

History: 

BP can date its history back to 1901 when the Shah of Iran granted William Knox D’Arcy a concession to search for oil. In 1909 the Anglo Persian Oil Company was incorporated as a subsidiary of Burma Oil Company and went on to exploit oil rights in the Middle East. In 1935 the company became known as the Anglo Iranian Oil Company, a name that it retained until 1953.

In 1951, the prime minister of Iran was assassinated and replaced by a nationalist named Mohammed Mossadeq who nationalized oil production under the National Iranian Oil Company. In 1953, the United States CIA organized a coup to remove Mossadeq. As a result of the coup, the National Iranian Oil Company became an international consortium. Profits were split on a 50/50 basis with Iran, but oil reserves were split among the consortium. 40% went to five American companies, 20% to Royal Dutch Shell and Total S.A., and 40% to the AIOC. In 1954, the AIOC became the British Petroleum Company.

In 1998 British Petroleum merged with Amoco to become BP Amoco. The company was formally renamed BP in 2001 and adopted the tagline “Beyond Petroleum.”

Holdings and Industry Segment:

 BP operates upstream and downstream affiliates and also owns the Castrol brand of automotive lubricants. BP has roughly 18 billion barrels of oil in proven reserves. It produces around 3.8 billion barrels of oil per day.

BP has major holdings in renewable energy including solar, hydrogen biofuel, and wind. The company currently invests of $1 billion per year in renewable energy research.

Revenue:

BP posted revenue of 308 billion USD in 2010 along with operating losses of 3.7 billion U.S. dollars and net income loss of 3.3 billion USD. These losses are a result of the Deep water Horizon well explosion that occurred in the summer of 2010. The year prior to the accident, BP posted a profit of $17 billion.

As a result of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon well explosion, BP agreed to set up a $20 billion fund in order to compensate citizens of Gulf States for the damage caused. The monetary size on the fund is neither a ceiling or a floor, leaving BP own to litigation in the future, but also requiring the company to release the entire amount of the fund.