Our history

1901 – Beginning of our story

On 28 May 1901, William Knox D’Arcy was granted a 60-year concession to explore and market oil, gas, asphalt and ozokerite across vast stretches of Persia.

1901

Beginning of our story

Drilling began in November 1902, in the Chiah Surkh mountains, 350 miles west of Tehran, under the direction of engineer George Reynolds.

Reynolds’s team included six Polish and Canadian drillers, three or four machinists, two blacksmiths from Central Europe, a few rig men, including some from the Azerbaijani oilfields at Baku, an Indian doctor, a Turkish surveyor, two English assistants, various cooks, firemen and servants, and a fearsome collection of Kurdish and Persian guards.

Reynolds coped with bad weather, breakages, sickness and religious festivals and soon spoke simple Persian and Kurdish, winning the respect of the local tribes.

A map of the D’Arcy concession area marked in green

1904 – Running out of money

With D’Arcy’s finances stretched and no oil, all operations at Chiah Surkh were suspended on 23 June. But by November, a new deal, the Concessions Syndicate, backed by Burmah Oil, was in place. A new search for oil in 1905 took Reynolds to Shardin, 100 miles northeast of Basra. By 1907, drilling at Shardin looked pointless, so Reynolds headed to Masjid-i-Suleiman, 125 miles northeast of Abadan.

1908 – Dawn of discovery

Burmah Oil provided another £40,000 of funding and the drilling of two wells began at Masjid-i-Suleiman. On the fateful day of 26 May 1908, the air hung heavy with the pungent smell of sulphur. At 4am, the drill plunged to a depth of 1,180 feet. And then, a fountain of oil erupted into the dawn sky.

An early drilling well, c.1910

1908 – William Knox D’Arcy

William Knox D’Arcy was born in Devon, England, and then practised as a solicitor in Australia, where he invested in a gold mine. In 1889, he returned to England with a fortune.

1908

William Knox D’Arcy

D’Arcy did not neglect his business interests on his return and became interested in discovering oil in Persia. For seven years, his investment slowly dwindled. He had gambled his considerable fortune on oil, and now he was on the verge of losing it all.

From remote Persia, telegrams were slow. D’Arcy got the good news five days after the striking of oil. ”If this is true, all our troubles are over,” he beamed, adding: “I am telling no one about it until I have the news confirmed.”

Although he never went to Persia, his unwavering perseverance, guided by his chief geologist, George Reynolds, led to the greatest discovery of our history.

Portrait of William Knox D’Arcy c.1910s

1912 - Our first refinery

On its completion in 1912, Abadan refinery in Persia became the world’s largest.

1912

Our first refinery

Masjid-i-Suleiman was a vast oilfield, and with an increasing number of wells, the need for a pipeline to carry the oil and to build a refinery was urgent. Sixty miles of six-inch pipe were shipped to Abadan from the US. At the mouth of the Persian Gulf, Anglo-Persian began building a refinery complex to turn the flow of thick crude oil into a usable product. Once complete, Abadan refinery was supported by a diverse workforce of fitters, riveters, masons and clerks from India, carpenters from China, and workers from the surrounding Arab countries. In October 1912, the first barrels of crude oil from Masjid-i-Suleiman were pumped through the pipeline to Abadan.

1914 - Admiralty deal

Nearly bankrupt, Anglo-Persian signed a deal to supply the Royal Navy with 40m barrels of oil over 20 years in return for £2m and the British government taking a 51% stake in the company.

1914

A deal with the Admiralty

Winston Churchill had taken a new role in British politics as First Lord of the Admiralty. Britons were proud of their navy, and oil-powered vessels were the latest innovation.

But while Anglo-Persian executives had courted the Royal Navy for years as a prospective customer for its oil, the old guard at the Admiralty had been hesitant to endorse coal’s upstart rival.

Churchill was a believer. He thought Britain needed a dedicated oil supply, and he argued the case in Parliament, urging his colleagues to “look out upon the wide expanse of the oil regions of the world!” Only the British-owned Anglo-Persian Oil Company, he said, could protect British interests.

The resolution passed resoundingly, and the UK government then became a major shareholder in the company. Churchill had ended Anglo-Persian’s cash crisis, and in 1914, no one had long to quietly ponder the long-term implications of a company entwining its commercial interests with a political entity. Eight weeks later, WWI had begun. By its end, war without oil would be unimaginable.

Contract signed by the British Admiralty and Anglo-Persian Oil Co, 1914

1915 - British Tanker Company

British Tanker Company was established as the shipping business of Anglo-Persian.

Launch of the British Aviator, c.1924

1916 - First research centre

In 1916, Anglo-Persian purchased a Georgian mansion in Sunbury-on-Thames, England, as a centre of research focused on oil refining.

Sunbury laboratory, c.1920s

1917 - The birth of a brand

The British Petroleum brand was originally created by a German firm as a way of marketing its products in Britain. During WWI, the British government seized that company’s assets, and the Public Trustee sold them to Anglo-Persian.

Two-gallon BP Motor Spirit can, c.1920s

1920 - Fuelling the Commonwealth

The Oil Agreement Act, 1920 enabled the Anglo-Persian Oil Company and His Majesty’s Government of Australia to form the Commonwealth Oil Refineries Limited, which developed an oil refining industry in Australia.

Commonwealth Oil Refineries

1921 - Shaping the UK’s energy landscape

Llandarcy refinery in Wales began operation in 1921. It holds a significant place in history as the UK’s first oil refinery. It was followed in 1924 by Grangemouth, in Scotland, also playing a crucial role in Scotland’s oil industry.

View of Grangemouth Refinery frontage

1925 - Turkish Petroleum Company

A concession covering most of Iraq was granted to the Turkish Petroleum Company, in which Anglo-Persian held a 47.5% interest. In 1927, oil was discovered near the city of Kirkuk.

Group of drillers and staff, Baba Gurgur Well No.1, Iraq, c.1920s

1932 - When bp met Shell

As the Great Depression made its impact on the UK, and with prices falling, Anglo-Persian and Royal Dutch-Shell agreed to combine their UK marketing operations, to be known as Shell-Mex and B.P. Ltd. This arrangement lasted until 1976.

A delivery truck displaying BP Ethyl posters, c.1930s

1935 - It’s all in the name

The Anglo-Persian Oil Company changed its name to Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. This was a result of the country of Persia changing its name to Iran.

1944 - Operation PLUTO

The covert pipeline that turned the English Channel into a liquid highway during the WWII D-Day landings in Normandy in 1944.

1944

Operation PLUTO

Imagine laying pipes across the treacherous sea floor, connecting England and France like a clandestine umbilical cord.

This ambitious endeavour was aimed to support Operation Overlord (aka, the D-Day landings) and provide millions of gallons of fuel for the Allied Army and Airforce.

One of the enormous bobbins, known as ‘conundrums’, which unwound the petrol pipelines under the Channel in Operation PLUTO

1950 - From rationing to refining

WWII made gasoline a rationed commodity in the UK. When petrol rationing ended in 1950, Llandarcy refinery in Wales was expanded.

1950

From rationing to refining

During rationing, bp and the other brands on sale in the UK were consolidated into a generic fuel labelled ‘Pool.’

Nationality trumped commercial viability, and the company’s growth on the Continent abruptly stopped.

Along with Llandarcy, Grangemouth in Scotland was also expanded and construction of a new refinery, on the Isle of Grain in the Thames Estuary in the southeast of England, began.

Diagram of Llandarcy refinery, c.1953

1951 - End of an era

Nationalists throughout the Middle East angrily questioned Western companies’ right to profit from Middle Eastern resources. Iran’s prime minister spoke vehemently against Anglo-Iranian’s presence in Iran. In 1951, the Iranian Parliament decided to nationalize oil operations within the country’s borders.

1951 - Evacuation

At the end of April 1951, Iran’s oil industry was nationalized. In June, Anglo-Iranian began evacuating expatriate staff and families from the country and by 5 October, everyone had left.

Company staff gathering at the Gymkhana Club, Abadan, before boarding HMS Mauritius, October 1951

1954 - New Iranian agreement

With no income, Iran accepted a new partnership proposal, including a 25-year contract to manage the country’s oilfields and refineries and a 50-50 profit split between it and a new consortium called Iranian Oil Participants.
This consortium of companies, including Standard Oil of Indiana (Amoco), and others, was created to run the oil operations in Iran, of which Anglo-Iranian had a 40% share.

1954 - A changing name

With the ending of the unwritten agreement between the former Shah of Persia and William D’Arcy, in December 1954, the board changed the company’s name to the British Petroleum Company.

Fixing the company’s new name plate on its headquarters at Britannic House in London, December 1954

1955 - Ads the way to do it

bp, like others, saw the potential of the new medium of television and its first commercial hit the small screens in the UK.

1955

Ads the way to do it

With its catchy tune, a chatty horse or a playful car, the newly branded BP Super became bp’s first-ever tv commercial, broadcast in the autumn of 1955.For viewers in the UK, they also featured a number of popular British comedians and were a real gas! Although the films have dated, they are wonderfully evocative of the post war period.

1964 - First offshore North Sea licence

In September, bp was granted its first UK North Sea licence and began exploration immediately.
After searching for almost half a century for a major source of home-grown British hydrocarbons, bp found success in the winter of 1965 with discovery of the West Sole gas field. Sea Gem became the company’s first offshore drilling rig in the North Sea.

1965 - Sea Gem

Tragically, just over six months after it spudded the first well in the winter of 1965 and only weeks after confirming the historic discovery, the Sea Gem became the North Sea’s first major rig disaster.
On 27 December 1965, during a moving operation to its second well site, the Sea Gem capsized and sank. Sadly, 14 of the 32 men onboard lost their lives.

Many engineering and safety lessons were learned from the Sea Gem tragedy, which led to critical changes in the UK oil and gas industry.

1969 - Alaskan adventures

A bigger find awaited in Alaska, but after a decade of drilling dry wells, bp was on the verge of abandoning its search.

1969

Alaskan adventures

The equipment was already packed up and awaiting shipment, when a rival consortium made a suspiciously extravagant offer for bp’s Alaska acreage along the edges of Prudhoe Bay.

Atlantic Richfield (ARCO) and Humble Oil (Exxon) were not telling, but they had struck oil in their own last-chance well in the centre of the Prudhoe Bay structure.

bp got back to the search and, in 1969, tapped into its share of the largest oil reservoirs ever found on the North American continent.

bp’s Prudhoe Bay discovery well at Put River, Alaska, c.1969

1970 - Forties field unleashed

bp made its largest discovery to date in the UK North Sea, the giant Forties field, a multi-billion-barrel oilfield, 160 kilometres from the nearest shore.

1970

Forties field unleashed

bp’s engineers had to design production platforms with legs tall enough to perch above the North Sea’s notoriously rough waters. Robust enough to stay standing even through harsh winters. Production began five years after the field’s discovery. The pipeline to a terminal at Firth of Forth, in Scotland, would be the largest deepwater pipeline ever constructed. It needed the built-in security and agility to survive intense currents and corrosion.

1971 - Nationalization

Colonel Ghaddafi, Libya’s leader since 1969, nationalized bp’s share of its joint venture. By 1972, other Middle Eastern countries had forced the international oil companies to hand over 25% of their concessions, rising to 51% over 10 years.
One by one after that, almost every oil-rich nation in the region – Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Qatar – announced that if they weren’t nationalizing their resources immediately, they would within the next 10 years.

1974 - Falling production

Oil-producing countries in the Middle East continued to raise their interests in the oil companies’ operations – bp’s production of crude oil would go from 80% of bp’s supply down to a meagre 10%.

1978 - A Standard merger

bp’s initial 25% stake in Standard Oil of Ohio (Sohio) ensured that Sohio facilities were ready to bring bp’s first Alaskan gasoline to market.
In June 1987, bp bought the remaining 45% of Sohio and merged it with its other US interests, re-naming it BP America Inc.

1987 - bp and a share sale gamble

The British government sold its remaining stake in bp, making the company fully privatized in October 1987.

1987

bp and a share sale gamble

The share sale unfortunately coincided with the so-called ‘Black Monday’ crash in the UK stock market, leading to bp’s share price falling below the share sale offer price.

From being a majority state-owned company, bp was privatized by the British government in stages between 1977 and 1987.

In June 1977, the British government sold 17% of its holding, followed by 5% in November 1979, and a further 7% in September 1983.

The final tranche of 31.5% was sold in October 1987 at a price of £3.30 per share. Watch this TV advert about the shares sale.

1997 - Browne’s bold move

On 19 May 1997, bp chief executive Lord Browne’s speech at Stanford University, in the US, hit the headlines, and bp published a statement on climate change.

1997

Browne’s bold move

The 1997 speech pledged to seek solutions in four areas: control emissions; fund research; support joint implementation; and develop alternative energy.

In March 2002, Lord Browne was back at Stanford to talk about it. In a speech entitled ‘Beyond petroleum business and the environment in the 21st century’, he emphasized that “climate change is an issue about leadership as well as science...” and spoke about experience, knowledge, research and working with others in co-operation being key to continuing change.

Lord Browne stated: “We need to reinvent the energy business to go beyond petroleum...” and that “...people expect a company such as bp to offer answers and not excuses...”

Lord Browne delivering his speech at Stanford, May 1997

1998 - Fuelling the future

bp and US oil firm Amoco merged in the then-largest industrial merger. This was followed by the acquisition of ARCO and Burmah Castrol, creating a global ‘supermajor’.

1998

Fuelling the future

BP Amoco became the largest producer of oil and natural gas in the US, and the third-largest publicly traded oil company in the world.

It sparked an industry-wide wave of consolidations.

In 2000, BP Amoco then acquired both the US-based oil and gas company, ARCO, and the lubricants and speciality chemicals company, Burmah Castrol. Burmah’s downstream operations were integrated into bp, and Castrol became bp’s flagship lubricants business.

bp Amoco

2000 - Redefining a logo

Following the major tie-ups with Amoco, ARCO, Burmah Castrol, and others, in July 2000, BP Amoco announced it would now call itself BP plc and revealed the new ‘Helios’ symbol, a green and yellow sunflower logo named after the Greek sun god.

A bp service station featuring the new Helios logo in Illinois. US

2002 - Aral

Veba Oel was acquired by bp, bringing access to several German refineries and Aral, Germany’s largest retail fuel brand. bp’s 630 retail stations in Germany were rebranded with the Aral blue and white.

Aral service station

2003 - TNK-BP

bp became a major player in the Russian oil industry through the formation of TNK-BP, a 50:50 joint venture with Russian investors AAR.

2005 - Texas City incident

On 23 March 2005, 15 workers were killed and more than 170 injured in an explosion at the Texas City refinery.
In October, the US Refineries Independent Safety Review Panel was formed, and bp committed to implement the panel’s 10 recommendations.

2007 - Rotterdam

bp sold its last refinery in the UK, Coryton in Essex, in 2007. However, it also acquired full ownership of the Rotterdam refinery in the Netherlands, which remains its largest refinery in Europe.
bp had previously sold a large part of its petrochemicals business, including the Lavéra and Grangemouth refineries, to Ineos, in 2005.

Catalytic cracking complex at Rotterdam refinery

2010 - Deepwater Horizon

On 20 April 2010, an explosion and subsequent fire led to the tragic loss of 11 lives and the sinking of the Transocean Deepwater Horizon drilling rig.
The rig had been completing operations on the Macondo well in the Gulf of America (formerly the Gulf of Mexico), 130 miles southeast of New Orleans.

Oil flowed from the well for 87 days before it was permanently sealed (see bp’s response and find out more about our commitment to the Gulf of America).

2012 - London 2012

bp was a major tier 1 sponsor and key partner of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games held in its home city, London.

bp sponsors the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games

2012 - Rosneft

bp sold to Rosneft its 50% stake in TNK-BP for $12.48 billion in cash and 18.5% Rosneft shares. Following the deal, this gave bp a total 19.75% interest in Rosneft, Russia’s largest oil company.
In 2022, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, bp announced its exit from Russia, including that it would exit its shareholding in Rosneft.

2017 - Building positions

From 2017 onwards, bp began establishing positions in renewable and other lower carbon energies alongside its core activities in oil and gas businesses. Today these form a small but key part of bp’s business overall. They include ownership of solar developer Lightsource bp, EV charging business bp Pulse, US renewable natural gas business Archaea Energy, bp Biofuels, and a 50% share of offshore wind developer, JERA Nex bp.

Lightsource bp launches Bighorn Solar project in Colorado – powering the world’s first steel mill to run almost entirely on solar

2018 - Growing onshore

In a major upgrade to its US onshore oil and gas business, bp purchased US oil and gas assets from BHP Billiton for $10.5 billion – its biggest acquisition since ARCO in 2000. Renamed bpx energy, the business is proving to be one of the most innovative and productive, well for well, among US companies drilling for shale oil and gas.

bpx’s Grand Slam facility in the Permian Basin, near Orla, Texas

2020 - Net zero ambition

Alongside a new strategy that included increased investment in lower carbon businesses, bp introduced an ambition to be a net zero company by 2050 or sooner, and to help the world get to net zero.

A bp pulse charging station in Guangzhou, China

2025 - Simpler, stronger, more valuable

Building on lessons learned over the previous five years, bp reset its strategic direction to grow its upstream oil and gas business, focus on its strongest downstream positions in key energy markets and invest selectively and with discipline in the transition.

bp Bunge Bioenergia biofuels business in Brazil