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BP

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BP plc (formerly The British Petroleum Company plc and BP Amoco plc ) is a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is one of the world's seven oil and gas "supermajors", whose performance in 2012, made it the world's sixth-largest oil and gas company, the sixth-largest energy company by market capitalization and the company with the world's 12th-largest revenue (turnover). It is a vertically integrated company operating in all areas of the oil and gas industry, including exploration and production, refining, distribution and marketing, petrochemicals, power generation and trading. It also has renewable energy interests in biofuels, wind power, smart grid and solar technology. As of 31 December 2018update, BP had operations in nearly 80 countries worldwide, produced around 3.7 million barrels per day (590,000 m3/d) of oil equivalent, and had total proven reserves of 19.945 billion barrels (3.1710 × 109 m3) of oil equ

History

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1909 to 1954 edit In May 1908, a group of British geologists discovered a large amount of oil at Masjed Soleyman located in the province of Khuzestan. It was the first commercially significant find of oil in the Middle East. William Knox D'Arcy, by contract with Ali-Qoli Khan Bakhtiari, obtained permission to explore for oil for the first time in the Middle East, an event which changed the history of the entire region. The oil discovery led to petrochemical industry development and also the establishment of industries that strongly depended on oil. On 14 April 1909, the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC) was incorporated as a subsidiary of Burmah Oil Company. Some of the shares were sold to the public. The first chairman and minority shareholder of the company became Lord Strathcona. Immediately after establishing the company, the British government asked Percy Cox, British resident to Bushehr, to negotiate an agreement with Sheikh Khaz’al Ibn Jabir of Arabistan for APOC to obtain a

Operations

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As of 31 December 2018update, BP had operations in 78 countries worldwide with the global headquarters in London, United Kingdom. BP operations are organized into three business segments, Upstream, Downstream, and renewables. Since 1951, BP has annually published its Statistical Review of World Energy , which is considered an energy industry benchmark. Operations by location edit United Kingdom edit BP has a major corporate campus in Sunbury-on-Thames which is home to around 3,500 employees and over 50 business units. Its North Sea operations are headquartered in Aberdeen, Scotland. BP's trading functions are based at 20 Canada Square in Canary Wharf, London. BP has three major research and development centres in the UK. BP operates more than 40 offshore oil and gas fields, four onshore terminals and a pipeline network that transports around 50%t of the oil and gas produced in the UK, according to the company. BP has invested more than £35 billion in the North Sea since the 1960s

Corporate affairs

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Helge Lund is chairman of BP Plc board of directors with Bernard Looney as chief executive officer. Board of directors edit As of February 2020, the following individuals serve on the board of BP plc: Helge Lund (chairman) Bernard Looney (chief executive officer) Brian Gilvary (chief financial officer) Nils Andersen (independent non-executive director) Alison Carnwath, DBE (independent non-executive director) Pamela Daley (independent non-executive director) Ian Davis (senior independent director) Ann Dowling, DBE (independent non-executive director) Melody Meyer (independent non-executive director) Brendan Nelson (independent non-executive director) Paula Rosput Reynolds (independent non-executive director) John Sawers, GCMG (independent non-executive director) Stock edit BP stock is composed of original BP shares as well as shares acquired through mergers with Amoco in 1998 and the Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO) in 2000. The company's shares are primarily traded on

Environmental record

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Climate policy edit In February 2020, BP set a goal to cut its greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero by 2050. BP is seeking net-zero carbon emissions across its operations and the fuels the company sells, including emissions from cars, homes, and factories. Details on the scope of this and how this will be achieved are publicly limited. BP said that it is restructuring its operations into four business groups to meet these goals: production and operations; customers and products; gas and low carbon; and innovation and engineering. The company discontinued involvement with American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, Western States Petroleum Association, and Western Energy Alliance, involved in lobbying government within the United States, because of differences of position on the issue of methane and carbon policies, as a development of this new commitment. Indigenous rights edit In 2016 a study was done that ranked oil, gas and mining companies for handling indigenous rights in the A

Violations and accidents

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Citing conditions similar to those that resulted in the 2005 Texas City Refinery explosion, on 25 April 2006, the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) fined BP more than $2.4 million for unsafe operations at the company's Oregon, Ohio refinery. An OSHA inspection resulted in 32 per-instance willful citations including locating people in vulnerable buildings among the processing units, failing to correct depressurization deficiencies and deficiencies with gas monitors, and failing to prevent the use of non-approved electrical equipment in locations in which hazardous concentrations of flammable gases or vapors may exist. BP was further fined for neglecting to develop shutdown procedures and designate responsibilities and to establish a system to promptly address and resolve recommendations made after an incident when a large feed pump failed three years prior to 2006. Penalties were also issued for five serious violations, including

Political influence

Lobbying for Libyan prisoner transfer release edit BP lobbied the British government to conclude a prisoner-transfer agreement which the Libyan government had wanted to secure the release of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the only person convicted for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing over Scotland, which killed 270 people. BP stated that it pressed for the conclusion of prisoner transfer agreement amid fears that delays would damage its "commercial interests" and disrupt its £900 million offshore drilling operations in the region, but it said that it had not been involved in negotiations concerning the release of Megrahi. Political contributions and lobbying edit In February 2002, BP's then-chief executive, Lord Browne of Madingley, renounced the practice of corporate campaign contributions, saying: "That's why we've decided, as a global policy, that from now on we will make no political contributions from corporate funds anywhere in the world." When the Washington Po

Market manipulation investigations and sanctions

The US Justice Department and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed charges against BP Products North America Inc. (subsidiary of BP plc) and several BP traders, alleging they conspired to raise the price of propane by seeking to corner the propane market in 2004. In 2006, one former trader pleaded guilty. In 2007, BP paid $303 million in restitution and fines as part of an agreement to defer prosecution. BP was charged with cornering and manipulating the price of TET propane in 2003 and 2004. BP paid a $125 million civil monetary penalty to the CFTC, established a compliance and ethics program, and installed a monitor to oversee BP's trading activities in the commodities markets. BP also paid $53 million into a restitution fund for victims, a $100 million criminal penalty, plus $25 million into a consumer fraud fund, as well as other payments. Also in 2007, four other former traders were charged. These charges were dismissed by a US District Court in 2009 on the grounds t