BP history

London-based British Petroleum is a global energy company and the fourth-largest company in the world. BP earned $14 billion in 2009 and $6 billion in the first quarter this year.

Origins: The Anglo-Persian Oil Co. incorporated in 1909 to exploit the discovery of oil in Persia (now Iran). By the start of World War I, the British government was the company’s major stakeholder as it sought to fuel its growing Navy. Renamed the Anglo-Iranian Oil Co. in 1935, the company thrived and supplied Allied forces through World War II.

Empire: In 1951, Iran’s democratically elected government nationalized its oil holdings, displacing the AIOC. In retaliation, the United Kingdom and United States boycotted Iranian oil. The CIA and British intelligence led a coup against Iran’s government in 1953, putting the pro-Western shah in power. Iran’s national oil operation was replaced by an international consortium, with AIOC as a member limited to a 40 percent share of Iranian oil. AIOC became the British Petroleum Co. in 1954.

Expansion: In 1959 BP expanded to Alaska, where later it became the largest stakeholder in the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System. In 1965 it was the first company to strike oil in the North Sea. It also placed offshore oil rigs near Papua, eastern Indonesia. BP operated in Iran until the Islamic Revolution of 1979, which ousted the shah. The oil refineries there were destroyed during the Iran-Iraq war, and Iran turned to exporting unrefined oil. The new regime of Ayatollah Khomeini dissolved all prior oil contracts and agreed to new deals with BP, giving the company 90 percent of its oil and keeping 10 percent for Khomeini.

Growth: The British government sold off its stake in BP in the 1980s, while BP expanded its U.S. market presence by acquiring companies like ARCO, Amoco, Burmah Castrol and Standard Oil of Ohio. BP also is exploring future reserves in Russia.

Mishaps: Fifteen BP refinery workers in Texas were killed in a 2005 explosion. The following year, more than a quarter million gallons of oil spilled through corroded pieces of BP’s pipeline in Alaska, prompting an expensive cleanup.

Staff and wire reports