Environmental Audit Assignment: The Company that I am analysing is BP (British Petroleum).

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Environmental Audit

 Assignment

From: Petra Belo

To: Eddie Pargeter

Hand In Date: 12/12/03

Course: BA Marketing Management

 

                 Abstract: The Company that I am analysing is BP (British Petroleum).

                         

 British Petroleum Company PLC

Public Company

Incorporated: 19909 as Anglo-Persian Oil Company        

Employees: 118,050

Sales: £41.71 billion (US$80.51 billion)

Stock Exchanges: London, New York, Toronto, Tokyo, Paris, Zurich, Amsterdam, Frankfurt

Company History

British Petroleum (BP) is one of the worlds leading oil companies, and one of the United Kingdoms largest corporations. The company, which was the pioneer of the Middle Eastern oil industry, having discovered oil in Iran before World War I, is now engaged in all aspects of oil exploration, production, refining, transportation, and marketing. It has significant interest in chemicals and plastics, including a range of specialty products- mostly detergents, advanced composite materials, and advanced ceramic engineered materials.

The new BP

The new BP has a long and exciting history that goes back more than a century. The company is made up of four companies, each with its own proud history: , ,  and . These histories are so often intertwined, that coming together as one company makes a great deal of sense. It's the power of one.

 Bp

BP's origins date back to May 1901, when a wealthy Englishman, William Knox D'Arcy, obtained a concession from the Shah of Persia to explore for and develop the oil resources of that country. As exploration continued, costs mounted, stretching D'Arcy's resources to the point where he sought outside financial assistance. This came in 1905 from the Burmah Oil Company, which provided new funds for D'Arcy's venture. In May 1908, he struck oil at Masjid-i-Suleiman in southwest Persia. It was the first commercial oil discovery in the Middle East.

In 1909, Anglo-Persian Oil was formed to develop the oil field. Later renamed as British Petroleum, the company's name was shortened to BP to reflect a continuing global expansion. Over the years, BP made many important discoveries, including fields in the North Sea near Scotland and at Prudhoe Bay in Alaska.

Amoco

Amoco began its life as a part of John D. Rockefeller's powerful Standard Oil Trust. Incorporated in 1889 as the Standard Oil Company (Indiana), the company's first challenge was to build a refinery in Whiting, Indiana, specially designed to handle high-sulphur crude oil from a field near Lima, Ohio.

In 1912, a year after dissolution of the Rockefeller Trust, company scientist William Burton and his colleague, Robert Humphreys, received a patent for the thermal cracking process that doubled the yield of gasoline from a barrel of crude oil, while also boosting its octane rating. Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, Standard Oil of Indiana remained the company's name until April of 1985 when it became Amoco, reflecting a growing international presence.

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Arco

The oldest of the four companies, ARCO was founded in Philadelphia in 1866 as the Atlantic Petroleum Storage Company. At the time, Atlantic’s business was simply to store and ship crude and refined oils. In 1870 the company built a refinery that could process 3,000 barrels a day, a record for that time. Only four years later it was sold to John D. Rockefeller's vast Standard Oil Trust (of which Amoco was also a part), where it remained until 1911, when a federal court dissolved the Trust. It merged with the Richfield Oil Company in 1966, and was known ...

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