British Petroleum acquired majority control of Standard Oil of Ohio in 1978. In 1959, the company expanded beyond the Middle East to Alaska and it was one of the first companies to strike oil in the North Sea. In 1935, it became the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company and in 1954, adopted the name British Petroleum. īP's origins date back to the founding of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company in 1908, established as a subsidiary of Burmah Oil Company to exploit oil discoveries in Iran. In the 2020 Forbes Global 2000, BP was ranked as the 357th-largest public company in the world. It has secondary listings on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange. BP has a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. In Russia, BP owns a 19.75% stake in Rosneft, the world's largest publicly traded oil and gas company by hydrocarbon reserves and production. Its largest division is BP America in the United States. The company has around 18,700 service stations worldwide. It also has renewable energy interests in biofuels, wind power, smart grid, and solar technology.Īs of 31 December 2018, BP had operations in nearly 80 countries worldwide, produced around 3.7 million barrels per day (590,000 m 3/d) of oil equivalent, and had total proven reserves of 19.945 billion barrels (3.1710 ×10 9 m 3) of oil equivalent. 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. It is one of the world's seven oil and gas " supermajors". BP plc (official styling BP p.l.c., formerly The British Petroleum Company plc and BP Amoco plc) is a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, England.