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Bp. British Petroleum ( Bp )

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As we have covered, the oil industry can be volatile and risky, but it can also be extremely lucrative if the company is successful. We decided to focus on BP. British Petroleum (BP) is the UK’s largest corporation and is one of the largest private-sector energy corporations in the world. It is the third largest energy company and the fourth largest company in the world. It is one of the seven gas super majors. It operates in over 80 countries, and in 2010 their production was approximately 3.4 million barrels of oil each day. The company is headquartered in London. BP is active in the fields of exploration, production, refining, distribution, marketing, petrochemical, power generation and trading. BP also owns a 19.7% stake in the …show more content…

In 1914, the British government became the company’s principle stockholder. While the company was originally registered as the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, Ltd; in response to the Persian government voting to change its name to Iran in 1935, the company was renamed the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, Ltd. Unfortunately, over the next couple Decades, sentiment in Iran began to turn against the company. The Iranian government began to believe that they were being taken advantage of, and that the British company was reaping profits at the expense of the Iranian people. In 1951, due in part to these beliefs, the country elected Mohammed Mossedegh as Prime Minister, who pushed to nationalize the holdings of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. Later that year, Iran voted on a bill nationalizing the oil company so that oil profits would then benefit Iran. The result was an international boycott of Iran. Nationalization was not accepted by the British government and their strategy consisted of “no mediation, no compromise, no acceptance of nationalization of any form.” (CBS, 2010) The British withdrew their technicians, blocked the port, cut off exports to Iran, and froze Iran’s hard-currency accounts in Britain. Finally, the British turned to the U.S. government for assistance. Their assistance came in the form of a CIA operation to depose the

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