BP (BP.) Share Price

BP - BP PLC Investor Summary

BP is one of the largest energy companies in the world and is among the six 'super major' multi service energy companies operating in the exploration, refinery, distribution and retail markets. The company was founded in 1909 as the Anglo-Persian Oil Company APOC (and later became the Anglo Iranian Oil Company AIOC) for the purposes of exploration in that country. After a diminishing influence in exploration in Iran owing to political changes, the company began exploration outside the Middle East in the 1950s successfully extracting oil in Alaska in 1959 and being the first to produce oil from the North Sea in the mid-1960s.

The company was privatised in 1987, however, this was just days prior to 'black Monday' and the shares were soon selling for a fraction of their initial offering. The share price recovered reasonably well and expansion of the firm continued with acquisitions such as Britoil in 1988, Amoco in 1998, and Burma Castrol and Arco in 2000. In recent years the company has shown a willingness to invest in alternative fuels and has a solar energy division (BP Solar). This is reflected in the new corporate identity introduced in 2000 based around the 'Beyond Petroleum' concept. Some 'greener' concepts have been put into practice within the company, for example in new service station design. In 2007 the company posted turnover of $284 billion employing almost 100,000 staff and operating 17 refineries and over 24,000 service stations worldwide.