Operations

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 locationedit

United Kingdomedit

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, and in 2012 announced its plans to invest another £10 billion until 2017. The company announced that it is focusing its investment in the UK North Sea into four development projects including the Clair, Devenick, Schiehallion and Loyal, and Kinnoull oilfields. BP is the operator of the Clair oilfield, which has been appraised as the largest hydrocarbon resource in the UK.

In Saltend near Hull, BP operates a petrochemicals plant that produces acetic acid and acetic anhydride used in the production of pharmaceuticals, textiles and other chemical products.

There are 1,200 BP service stations in the UK. Since 2018 BP operates the UK's largest electric vehicle charging network through its subsidiary BP Chargemaster.

United Statesedit

The United States operations comprise nearly one-third of BP's worldwide business interests, and the United States is the country with the greatest concentration of its employees and investments. BP employs approximately 14,000 people in the United States. In 2018, BP's total production in the United States included 385,000 barrels per day (61,200 m3/d) of oil and 1.9 billion cubic feet per day (54 million cubic metres per day) of natural gas, and its refinery throughput was 703,000 barrels per day (111,800 m3/d).

BP's major subsidiary in the United States is BP America, Inc. based in Houston, Texas, which is the parent company for the BP's operations in the country. BP Exploration & Production Inc., a 1996 established Houston-based subsidiary, is dealing with oil exploration and production, including Gulf of Mexico activities. BP Corporation North America, Inc., provides petroleum refining services as also transportation fuel, heat and light energy, and petrochemical products. BP Products North America, Inc., a 1954 established Houston-based subsidiary, is engaged in the exploration, development, production, refining, and marketing of oil and natural gas. BP America Production Company, a New Mexico-based subsidiary, engages in oil and gas exploration and development. BP Energy Company, a Houston-based subsidiary, is a provider of natural gas, power, and risk management services to the industrial and utility sectors and a retail electric provider in Texas.

BP's upstream activities are divided into three business areas which are deepwater Gulf of Mexico, the Lower 48 states, and Alaska. BP is a leading acreage holder and producer of oil and natural gas in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico.

As of 2019update the company produces about 300,000 barrels per day (48,000 m3/d) of oil equivalent in the Gulf of Mexico. BP operates the Atlantis, Mad Dog, Na Kika, and Thunder Horse production platforms while holding interest in hubs operated by other companies.

As of 31 December 2018update, the company operated nine North Slope oilfields in the Greater Prudhoe Bay area. BP is the largest partner with just under 50% ownership stake in the 800-mile (1,300 km) long Trans-Alaska Pipeline System.

In 2014, BP moved its onshore unit in the United States to a new business called U.S. Lower 48 Onshore to compete in the burgeoning shale gas industry dominated by smaller companies. It has a 7.5 billion barrels (1.19 billion cubic metres) material resource base on 5.7 million acres (23,000 km2). It has shale positions in the Woodford, Oklahoma, Haynesville, Texas, and Eagle Ford, Texas shales. It has unconventional gas (shale gas or tight gas) stakes also in Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming, primarily in the San Juan Basin.

BP operates Whiting Refinery in Indiana, Cherry Point Refinery in Washington, and the Toledo Refinery in Ohio, which is owned by BP and Husky Energy.

The company owns two petrochemical plants in the U.S. Its petrochemical plant in Texas City, located on the same site as the formerly owned Texas City Refinery, produces industrial chemicals including propylene and styrene. BP's Cooper River, South Carolina petrochemical plant produces PTA, which is used in the production of synthetic fibre for clothing, packaging and optical films.

BP operates nine wind farms in six states, and held an interest in another in Hawaii with a net generating capacity of about 1,800 MW. These wind farms include the Cedar Creek 2, Titan 1, Goshen North, Flat Ridge 1 and 2, Mehoopany, Fowler Ridge 1, 2 and 3 and Auwahi wind farms.

On 27 August 2019 BP announces the agreement to sell all its Alaska operations and interests to Hilcorp for $5.6 billion. The transaction includes interests in giant Prudhoe Bay Oil Field and Trans-Alaska Pipeline System.

Other locationsedit

In Egypt, BP produces approximately 15% of the country's total oil production and 40% of its domestic gas. The company also has offshore gas developments in the East Nile Delta Mediterranean, and in the West Nile Delta, where the company has a joint investment of US$9 billion with RWE to develop two offshore gas fields.

BP is active in offshore oil development in Angola, where it holds an interest in a total of nine oil exploration and production blocks covering more than 30,000 square kilometres (12,000 sq mi). This includes four blocks it acquired in December 2011 and an additional block that is operated by Brazilian national oil company, Petrobras, in which it holds a 40% stake.

BP has a stake in exploration of two blocks of offshore deepwater assets in the South China Sea.

In India, BP owns a 30% share of oil and gas assets operated by Reliance Industries, including exploration and production rights in more than 20 offshore oil and gas blocks, representing an investment of more than US$7 billion into oil and gas exploration in the country.

BP has major liquefied natural gas activities in Indonesia, where it operates the Tangguh LNG project, which began production in 2009 and has a capacity of 7.6 million tonnes of liquid natural gas per year. Also in that country, the company has invested in the exploration and development of coalbed methane.

BP operates in Iraq as part of the joint venture Rumaila Operating Organization in the Rumaila oil field, the world's fourth largest oilfield, where it produced over 1 million barrels per day (160×10^3 m3/d) of oil equivalent in 2011.

BP operates the Kwinana refinery in Western Australia, which can process up to 146,000 barrels per day (23,200 m3/d) of crude oil and is the country's largest refinery, supplying fuel to 80%t of Western Australia. BP is a non-operating joint venture partner in the North West Shelf, which produces LNG, pipeline gas, condensate and oil. The NWS venture is Australia's largest resource development and accounts for around one third of Australia's oil and gas production.

BP operates the two largest oil and gas production projects in the Azerbaijan's sector of the Caspian Sea, the Azeri–Chirag–Guneshli offshore oil fields, which supplies 80% of the country's oil production, and the Shah Deniz gas field. It also and develops the Shafag-Asiman complex of offshore geological structures. In addition, it operates the Sangachal terminal and the Azerbaijan's major export pipelines through Georgia such as Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan, Baku–Supsa and South Caucasus pipelines.

BP's refining operations in continental Europe include Europe's second-largest oil refinery, located in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, which can process up to 377,000 barrels (59,900 m3) of crude oil per day. Other facilities are located in Ingolstadt, Gelsenkirchen and Lingen, in Germany, as well as one in Castellón, Spain.

In addition to its offshore operations in the British zone of North Sea, BP has interests in the Norwegian section of the sea through its stake in Aker BP. As of December 2018update, BP holds a 19.75% stake in Russia's state-controlled oil company Rosneft.

Retail operations of motor vehicle fuels in Europe are present in the United Kingdom, France, Germany (through the Aral brand), the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Poland, Greece and Turkey.

BP's Canadian operations are headquartered in Calgary and the company operates primarily in Alberta, the Northwest Territories, and Nova Scotia. It purchases crude oil for the company's refineries in the United States, has oil sands holdings in Alberta and four offshore blocks in Nova Scotia. The company's Canadian oil sands leases include joint ventures with Husky Energy in the Sunrise Energy Project (50%), and Devon Energy in Pike, and a partnership with Value Creation Inc. in the development of the Terre de Grace oil sands lease. The BP's investment in the Sunrise Project is £1.6 billion and it is expected to start production in 2014. In May 2017, it was reported that BP is considering to sell-off its oil sands assets.

BP is the largest oil and gas producer in Trinidad and Tobago, where it holds more than 1,350 square kilometres (520 sq mi) of offshore assets and is the largest shareholder in Atlantic LNG, one of the largest LNG plants in Western Hemisphere.

In Brazil, BP holds stakes in offshore oil and gas exploration in the Barreirinhas, Ceará and Campos basins, in addition to onshore processing facilities. BP also operates biofuel production facilities in Brazil, including three cane sugar mills for ethanol production.

Exploration and productionedit

BP Upstream's activities include exploring for new oil and natural gas resources, developing access to such resources, and producing, transporting, storing and processing oil and natural gas. The activities in this area of operations take place in 25 countries worldwide. In 2018, BP produced around 3.7 million barrels per day (590×10^3 m3/d) of oil equivalent, of which 2.191 million barrels per day (348.3×10^3 m3/d) were liquids and 8.659 billion cubic feet per day (245.2 million cubic metres per day) was natural gas, and had total proved reserves of 19,945 million barrels (3,171.0×10^6 m3) of oil equivalent, of which liquids accounted 11,456 million barrels (1,821.4×10^6 m3) barrels and natural gas 49.239 trillion cubic feet (1.3943 trillion cubic metres). In addition to the conventional oil exploration and production, BP has a stake in the three oil sands projects in Canada.

Refining and marketingedit

BP downstream's activities include the refining, marketing, manufacturing, transportation, trading and supply of crude oil, petrochemicals and petroleum products. Downstream is responsible for BP's fuels, lubricants and petrochemical businesses and has major operations located in Europe, North America and Asia.

As of 2018, BP owned or had a share in 11 refineries and 15 petrochemical manufacturing plants worldwide. The Company had sold or converted 16 plants since 2000. It was looking to sell off its stake in a petrochemicals joint venture in China, its largest investment in that country. The company's petrochemicals plants produce products including PTA, paraxylene, and acetic acid.

BP, which employs about 1,800 people in oil trading and trades over 5 million barrels per day (790×10^3 m3/d) of oil and refined products, is the world's third-biggest oil trader after Royal Dutch Shell and Vitol. The operation is estimated to be able to generate over $1 billion trading profits in a good year.

Air BP is the aviation division of BP, providing aviation fuel, lubricants & services. It has operations in over 50 countries worldwide. BP Shipping provides the logistics to move BP's oil and gas cargoes to market, as well as marine structural assurance. It manages a large fleet of vessels most of which are held on long-term operating leases. BP Shipping's chartering teams based in London, Singapore, and Chicago also charter third party vessels on both time charter and voyage charter basis. The BP-managed fleet consists of Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs), one North Sea shuttle tanker, medium size crude and product carriers, liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) carriers, and coasters. All of these ships are double-hulled.

BP has around 18,700 service stations worldwide. Its flagship retail brand is BP Connect, a chain of service stations combined with a convenience store, although in the US it is gradually being transitioned to the ampm format. In Germany and Luxembourg, BP operates service stations under the Aral brand. On the US West Coast, in the states of California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Idaho, Arizona, and Utah, BP primarily operates service stations under the ARCO brand. In Australia BP operates a number of BP Travel Centres, large-scale destination sites located which, in addition to the usual facilities in a BP Connect site, also feature food-retail tenants such as McDonald's, KFC and Nando's and facilities for long-haul truck drivers.

Castrol is BP's main brand for industrial and automotive lubricants and is applied to a large range of BP oils, greases and similar products for most lubrication applications.

Alternative and low carbon energyedit

BP was the first of supermajors expanding its focus on energy sources other than fossil fuels. It established an alternative and low carbon energy business in 2005, with plans to invest $8 billion over a 10-year period into renewable energy sources including solar, wind, and biofuels, and non-renewable sources including natural gas and hydrogen power. According to the company, it spent a total of $8.3 billion in these projects through completion in 2013.

BP operates 11 wind farms in seven states of the U.S., and held an interest in another in Hawaii with a net generating capacity of about 1,800 MW. In BP and Tesla, Inc. are cooperating for testing the energy storage by battery at the Titan 1 wind farm.

In Brazil, BP owns two ethanol producers—Companhia Nacional de Açúcar e Álcool andTropical BioEnergia—with three ethanol mills. These mills produce around 800,000 cubic metres per annum (5,000,000 bbl/a) of ethanol equivalent. BP has invested in an agricultural biotechnology company Chromatin, a company developing crops that can grow on marginal land and that are optimized to be used as feedstock for biofuel, and Vedrezyne, which produces petrochemicals in yeast. Its joint venture with DuPont called Butamax, which has developed the patented bio-butanol-producing technology and owns an isobutanol plant in Scandia, Kansas, United States. In addition BP owns biomethane production facilities in Canton, Michigan, and North Shelby, Tennessee, as well as share of facilities under construction in Oklahoma City and Atlanta. BP's subsidiary Air BP supplies aviation biofuel at Oslo, Halmstad, and Bergen airports.

Six years after closing down BP Solar, BP announced its return to the solar sector with an investment of $200 million to Lightsource Renewable Energy (Lightsource BP). Differently from BP Solar, Lightsource BP focuses on the managing and maintaining solar farms instead of manufacturing solar panels. As of 2017update, Lightsource has commissioned 1.3 GW of solar capacity and manages about 2 GW of solar capacity. It plans to increase the capacity up to 8 GW through projects in the United States, India, Europe and the Middle East.

BP has invested $20 million in Israeli quick-charging battery firm StoreDot Ltd.

In 2018, the CEO Bob Dudley said that out of the company's total spending of $15 to $17 billion per year, about $500 million will be invested in low-carbon energy and technology. The relatively small size of BP's alternative energy operations has led to allegations of greenwashing by Greenpeace, Mother Jones and energy analyst and activist Antonia Juhasz, among others.