They started their operations in the middle east. the rest is history, in the making. neo liberaliasm neo colonialism, human rights abuses, war... and somewhere there climate kaos. ( but hey, we dont care so much about gloval warming! ) and the funny thing is YOUR money is paying for it. hilarious. welcome to the new BP. Waaaaaay Beyond petroleum. beyon belief.

William Knox D’Arcy (1849-1917) made a fortune mining in Australia.  He decided to try to make another through oil in Persia.  In 1901 he was granted a concession for virtually all of the Persian Empire.  Initially, he did not meet with any success in his prospecting.  However, the Admiralty, which was converting its vessels from coal to oil, saw the strategic value in having an oil source available in the region.  Therefore, in 1905 it persuaded the Burmah Oil Company to fund D’Arcy’s efforts thereby allowing the search to be continued.  In May 1908 oil was discovered at Masjidnim-i-Suleiman in the south-west of the country.  In April 1909 the Anglo-Persian Oil Company was set up; the venture’s principal shareholder was the Burmah Oil Company.
                In 1914 the Admiralty induced the British government to pay £2m for a majority shareholding in Anglo-Persian, the company in turn agreeing to supply the Admiralty’s needs.  The government received two seats on the board and the power to veto any non-commercial decision (this was never used).  While the company was majority state-owned it operated as a commercial business.  With the funds made available by this deal, Charles Greenway, the company’s chairman, was able to turn Anglo-Persian into a fully integrated international oil company.
                In 1930 BP adopted its shield logo.
                In 1931 Shell-Mex & BP Limited was set up to market BP and Shell.
                In 1935 Persia charged its name to Iran and Anglo-Persian Oil its to Anglo-Iranian Oil.
                In May 1951 the government of Muhammad Mussadegh nationalised the Iranian oil industry, thereby prompting an international crisis.  Production was halted.  In 1953 the government was overthrown by a western backed coup.  In August 1954 a new agreement was signed by the government with an international consortium; Anglo-Iranian received only a 40% share in the set-up.  Production was resumed.  The matter as a whole inclined BP to develop its interests in other regions.
                John May (1926-2002) of the advertising agency S.H.Benson created the Mrs 1970 to promote Shell-Mex's oil-fired central heating.  The campaign proved a great success.
                In 1955 the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company changed its name to British Petroleum.
                In 1965 BP found the West Sole gas field in British waters.
                In 1968 BP acquired refining and marketing operations on America’s east coast.  The following year, following a decade long search, the company discovered oil at Prudhoe Bay on Alaska’s North Slope; the strike gave it a share in America’s largest oil field.  In August 1969 it signed an agreement with Standard Oil of Ohio of the US.
                In 1969 George Ashford (1911-1998) became the first outsider to be appointed the managing director of BP.  He had joined the company’s main board two years earlier, having been a director of the Distillers Company and having been instrumental in that company’s sale of its chemicals and plastics business to BP.
                In 1970 Jack Birks (1920-2001) was appointed the general manager of BP's Exploration & Production Department.  As such, he was central to development of the Forties Field as the first substantial North Sea field.  (From 1978 to 1982 he was BP's managing director.)
                In October 1970 BP made its first big commercial discovery in the UK sector of the North Sea.
                In 1973 Opec raised the price of oil.  With Prudhoe Bay and Forties, BP Oil was well-positioned and successfully rode out the energy crisis.  The company responded to the uncertainty of the era by diversifying into a variety of fields, ranging from coalmining to animal feed.
                BP has a research centre at Sunbury.
                In early 1975 Burmah Oil ran into severe financial problems.  The Bank of England then took over Burmah’s 21% holding in BP.
                In 1975 Shell-Mex & BP Limited was dissolved.  The division was overseen by the BP executive Denys 'Tiny' Milne (1926-2000, who became the chief executive of the new BP Oil.
                In 1975, following the dissolution of Shell-Mex & BP Limited, BP Oil was set up to oversee the refining and sales of BP’s fuels in the UK.  The company’s first chairman was Denys ‘Tiny’ Milne (1926-2000).
                In 1977 the Trans Alaska Pipeline became operational.
                In 1977 the Callaghan Labour government conducted the first modern privatisation when it sold a tranche of shares in BP.  The sale was the first equity issue that had to meet both British and American listing requirementssimultaneously.  To do this the American lawyers produced a 200-page document, the British lawyer John Mayo (1920-2001) wrote a 4-page one that did the same.
                In 1978 ‘Tiny’ Rowland (1917-1998), the head of the conglomerate Lonrho, compiled a dossier on Rhodesian sanction-breaking by British companies, notably BP and Shell, which were using a pipeline that he had built from the Mozambique port of Beira.  This prompted an inquiry by the British government.
                In 1979 BP’s assets in Nigeria were nationalised.
                The recession of the early 1980s prompted reductions in shipping, refining, and chemicals.
                In October 1987 the government sold its remaining 31% holding in BP.  That month the stock market crashed and the sale flopped, enabling the Kuwait Investment Office of Kuwait to acquire a 21.7% stake in the company.  After pressure was brought to bear on the Office by the UK government, it reduced the size of its holding.
                In 1987 BP turned SOhio into a wholly-owned subsidiary.
                In 1987 BP engaged in a £1.5bn rights issue.
                In 1987 BP acquired Britoil, a former state company, thereby doubling its North Sea activities.
                In July 1987 Trafalgar House sold Cambrian Petroleum and Candecca Resources to BP for £21m.
                In January 1988 the Kuwait Investment Office raised its holding in BP to 18.9%.
                In February 1989 the Kuwait Investment Office raised its holding in BP to 19.3%.
                In March 1988 the Kuwait Investment Office raised its holding in BP to 22.1%.  The Office announced that it would observe a holding of 22.5% and would not seek board representation.
                In July 1988 BP sold a number of North Sea assets to Lasmo and Ranger Oil (UK) for £81.5m.
                In November 1988 BP sold a 2.5% holding in the Magnus oilfield to Braspetro Oil Services Company for US$44.5m; a 2.5% one to Goal Petroleum for the same; a 5% one to Repsol Exploration for US$89m, and a 5% one to Sun Oil Britain for the same.
                (In 1989 BP sold BP Minerals to RTZ.)
                In 1989 BP relaunched its corporate identity.  This included a restyling of the BP shield and an emphasis on the colour green.
                In the early 1990s BP overextended itself, taking on too much debt.  In 1992 the company made a US$624m loss.  The chairman Sir Robert Horton was toppled in a boardroom coup and was replaced by David Simon (later Lord Simon).  Simon quickly turned it around through a sale of assets and a reduction in staff numbers.  His achievements in changing the company’s culture and performance were built in part on the work that Horton had carried out.
                In December 1995 the government sold off a 1.87% holding in BP, thereby raising £513m.  Most of the shares had been intended as loyalty bonuses for small investors who had bought shares during the 1987 tranche of the company’s privatisation.  However, the October 1987 stock market crash meant that relatively few such investors participated in the offering.
                In January 1996 BP announced that it was planning to cut its worldwide refining capacity by 30%.
                In February 1996 it was announced that BP and Mobil of the US were combing their European refining, service station, and motor oil businesses into a single venture of which BP would take operational control.  Mobil petrol stations were to be rebranded as BP ones.  The partnership was to have two parts: Mobil would have 51% of the lubricants section, and BP 70% of the fuels one.
                In 1997 the Kuwait Investment Office sold a 3% holding in BP through a secondary placing for £1.22bn.  After the sale it still had a 6.3% stake in the company.


what do you think? isnt bp's solar petrol station NICE?

lets throw up together*. contact Rising Tide. tick the 24th of april on your calendar. lets have fun. party.

 london@risingtide.org.uk


*NOT literally.