BP overview:

BP plc, formerly named British Petroleum is a multinational oil and gas company
that has its headquarters in London, England. BP operates in more than 70
countries, employs 79,800 people and is highly vertically integrated. BP not only
operates in the retailing of oil products, but also is involved in explorations, refinery,
distribution and marketing. BP is listed on the London Stock Exchange and has
secondary listings on the Frankfurt Stock exchange and New York Stock exchange.
The company’s current Chief Executive Officer is Bob Dudley and the Chairman of
the group is Carl-Henric Svanberg.

BP was founded in 1908 as the Anglo-Persian Oil Company and changed names
several times before finally adopting the name BP in 2001. Initially the company
relied mainly on the Middle East for oil reserves, before beginning to search for oil
in Alaska in 1959.

In Bp’s more recent history, the company reputation has been severely damaged
due to several environmental disasters, which on multiple accounts led to employee
fatalities. Most prominently, in 2010 one of BP’s oilrigs exploded off the Gulf of
Mexico and led to 11 employee deaths. In 2005 BP suffered a refinery explosion in
Texas leading to death of 15 workers.

Despite these negative factors as well as a negative operating income and profit for
2015, BP is still considered one of the seven ‘supermajors’ in oil and gas.