BP
British multinational oil and gas company
BP p.l.c. is a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, England. It is one of the oil and gas "supermajors" and one of the world's largest companies measured by revenues and profits.
It is a vertically integrated company operating in all areas of the oil and gas industry, including exploration and extraction, refining, distribution and marketing, power generation, and trading.
BP's origins date back to the founding of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company in 1909, established as a subsidiary of the Burmah Oil Company to exploit oil discoveries in Iran. In 1935, it became the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company and in 1954, adopted the name British Petroleum.
BP acquired majority control of Standard Oil of Ohio in 1978. Formerly majority state-owned, the British government privatised the company in stages between 1979 and 1987. BP merged with Amoco in 1998, becoming BP Amoco p.l.c., and acquired ARCO, Burmah Castrol and Aral AG shortly thereafter. The company's name was shortened to BP p.l.c.
The public source identifies “BP” as british multinational oil and gas company. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around British, multinational and company.
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The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q152057. VIAF identifies the subject as 139890535. The Library of Congress control number is no2002055097. 1 of 13 selected statements include explicit references; 10 carry qualifiers and 3 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1909, 1935, 1954 and 1978.
Official terminology may obscure informal participation, dissent or communities documented only indirectly. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “BP” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.