BP plc
Integrated Oil & GasFounded 1909- Updated July 2025
Reviewed by Swet Parvadiya
Last reviewed: July 2025
CorpDigest
BP plc
Company History
Founded 1909 in London, United Kingdom
Last reviewed: 2025-07-15 · By Swet Parvadiya
BP plc is a Integrated Oil & Gas company with $194B in 2024 revenue and 88K employees worldwide. BP plc stands at the intersection of two eras in energy history — the century-long dominance of fossil fuels and the accelerating transition toward cleaner sources. As an integrated energy major, BP participates across the entire value chain: from the geological survey work that identifies hydrocarbon reserves deep below the ocean floor to the retail pump where an American driver fills up their car at an Amoco station in suburban Chicago. The company's organizational structure reflects this breadth: its Gas & Low Carbon Energy segment handles LNG trading and renewable energy development; its Oil Production & Operations segment manages upstream extraction across four global regions; and its Customers & Products segment runs refining, petrochemicals, lubricants, and retail fuel operations. Binding all of these together is one of the world's largest commodity trading operations, which optimizes the flow of energy between markets and generates substantial additional value. With approximately 87,800 employees across more than 60 countries, revenues of approximately $194 billion in 2024, and a market capitalization of approximately $80 billion, BP is simultaneously one of the largest companies in the world and one of the most strategically challenged. Its history — stretching from a colonial oil concession in Persia to a 21st-century clean energy ambition — makes it a uniquely instructive case study in how industrial enterprises navigate transformative technological and political change. The central question for BP in 2025 is not whether it will survive the energy transition, but whether it will lead it or be led by it.
William Knox D'Arcy obtained the original concession from the Persian Shah in 1901 that ultimately led to the founding of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. For seven years between 1901 and 1908, D'Arcy personally funded exploration drilling in Persia at enormous cost — spending the equivalent of many millions of modern dollars before the breakthrough discovery at Masjid-i-Suleiman in May 1908. Though he partnered with the Burmah Oil Company in 1905 when his resources were nearly exhausted, D'Arcy retained a significant financial interest in the newly formed Anglo-Persian Oil Company and served as a director from its incorporation in 1909 until his death in 1917. He is widely credited as the individual most responsible for the discovery of Middle Eastern oil and the founding of what would become one of the world's most powerful energy companies. D'Arcy received relatively modest personal recognition during his lifetime for a discovery that transformed global geopolitics, economics, and the physical landscape of the 20th century.
William Knox D'Arcy obtains a 60-year oil exploration concession from the Persian Shah covering approximately 500,000 square miles — roughly three-quarters of Persia — in exchange for Â$25,400 cash and a 16% profit royalty, laying the foundation for the company that will become BP.
After seven years of expensive and largely unsuccessful drilling, field manager George Reynolds strikes commercial-quality oil at Masjid-i-Suleiman in western Persia on May 26, 1908. The well produces approximately 5,000 barrels per day — the first major commercial oil discovery in the Middle East and one of the most consequential geological discoveries in history.
The Anglo-Persian Oil Company is formally incorporated in April 1909, with William Knox D'Arcy and the Burmah Oil Company as principal backers. The company begins construction of the Abadan refinery on the Persian Gulf and a 140-mile pipeline from the Masjid-i-Suleiman field.
The British government, at the urging of First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill, purchases a 51% controlling stake in Anglo-Persian for approximately Â$2.8 million. Churchill's strategic rationale is to secure domestic British control over oil supplies for the Royal Navy's conversion from coal to oil propulsion — a conversion that would give British ships a decisive speed advantage over German vessels in the coming war.
Following the 1953 resolution of the Iranian nationalization crisis and the Shah's restoration to power, the company renames itself British Petroleum Company. A new oil consortium replaces the exclusive Anglo-Iranian concession, giving American, Dutch, and French oil companies their first equity stakes in Iranian production while British Petroleum retains a 40% share.
BP discovers the Forties Field in the UK North Sea — one of the largest oil fields ever found in British territory — containing an estimated 4 billion barrels of recoverable oil. This discovery transforms BP's strategic position, providing a stable, politically secure production base at precisely the moment when Middle Eastern supply security was becoming uncertain.
The Thatcher government completes the privatization of its remaining 31.5% stake in BP through a global share offering timed for October 1987 — weeks before the global stock market crash known as Black Monday disrupted the sale and left underwriters with unsold shares. The privatization is eventually completed and marks BP's transformation from a state-controlled strategic asset to a fully commercial publicly traded company.
BP merges with Chicago-based Amoco Corporation in a deal valued at approximately $48.2 billion — the largest industrial merger in history at the time. The combined company becomes BP Amoco, with operations in 100 countries and production of approximately 2.5 million barrels per day. The merger gives BP a commanding US retail fuel presence through Amoco's 9,000+ service stations and significant Gulf of Mexico and North American upstream assets.
Under CEO Sir John Browne, BP launches the 'Beyond Petroleum' rebranding campaign, introducing the sunflower logo still in use today and publicly positioning the company as an energy company committed to addressing climate change. BP invests in solar energy through its BP Solar subsidiary and becomes the first major oil company to acknowledge the scientific consensus on climate change — a positioning that earns significant media attention but whose financial substance remains limited at this stage.
The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, operating on the Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico under contract to BP, suffers a catastrophic blowout on April 20, 2010, killing 11 workers and triggering the largest marine oil spill in US history — approximately 4.9 million barrels of crude oil released over 87 days. BP ultimately pays more than $65 billion in total costs including cleanup, compensation, fines, and legal settlements.
Under new CEO Bernard Looney, BP announces the most ambitious climate commitment made by any major oil company — pledging to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, cut oil and gas production by 40% by 2030, and invest up to $5 billion per year in low-carbon energy. Simultaneously, BP cuts its dividend by 50% — the first reduction since 1992 — citing the COVID-19 demand collapse and the need to fund the transition strategy.
New CEO Murray Auchincloss, who replaced the disgraced Bernard Looney in January 2024, presents a revised strategy that moderates several of the most aggressive low-carbon targets while maintaining the 2050 net-zero commitment. BP reduces its annual low-carbon capital expenditure guidance, sells offshore wind assets in Europe, and prioritizes Gulf of Mexico development and LNG trading as the primary growth drivers through 2030.
BP's acquisition of Chicago-based Amoco Corporation was driven by the strategic logic of combining BP's European and global upstream assets with Amoco's extensive North American portfolio — particularly Amoco's significant positions in the Gulf of Mexico deepwater, the Permian Basin, and Rocky Mountain natural gas. The merger also gave BP a commanding US retail fuel presence through Amoco's approximately 9,000 service stations, predominantly in the Midwest and Southeast. At $48.2 billion, it was the largest industrial merger in history at the time of its announcement in August 1998.
The $27 billion acquisition of ARCO followed the Amoco deal and was motivated primarily by ARCO's Alaska North Slope production assets — including a 22% stake in the Prudhoe Bay field (the largest oil field in North America) and associated infrastructure — and its significant deepwater Gulf of Mexico portfolio. ARCO's ARCO-branded retail fuel stations on the US West Coast (primarily California and the Pacific Northwest) also provided BP with a major retail fuel presence in the western United States.
BP acquired Castrol — the world's leading premium lubricant brand — for approximately $4.7 billion as part of its strategy to build a high-margin, branded consumer products business that would be less cyclically sensitive than its upstream and downstream commodity operations. Castrol's global brand strength, particularly in Asian automotive markets, and its technology leadership in synthetic lubricant formulation made it a compelling acquisition target that no other oil major had managed to secure.
BP's acquisition of a 43% stake in Lightsource Renewable Energy — which it subsequently increased to approximately 51% — was the most tangible early financial commitment to the 'Beyond Petroleum' strategy articulated under CEO John Browne and later Bernard Looney. Lightsource was one of Europe's largest solar developers, with a portfolio of utility-scale solar farms in the UK, Ireland, and continental Europe, and was expanding into the United States and India. The acquisition gave BP a credible operational platform in utility-scale solar without requiring it to build solar development capabilities from scratch.