Just how British is BP?

"Darn British oil"

A “great British company” is under attack by a vengeful American President. To arms, patriots, cry  British rightwingers.

But just how British is BP? Obviously it’s listed in London. And it’s got a British CEO. But BP employs 23,000 people in the US, compared to 10,000 UK workers. Around 40 per cent of BP’s shares are held in the UK. But around the same proportion is held in the US. And a glance at BP’s 2009 report (p29)shows that 26 per cent of BP’s crude oil production comes from the US (665,000 barrels a day out of 2,535,000 globally). A similar proportion of BP’s natural gas comes from the US. And 18 per cent of its oil is sold in the US too. And BP’s entire US operation is largely an inheritance from the 1998 merger with Amoco under Lord Browne.

So we have a company with a large number of American workers, a large number of American owners, which sells American oil and gas to American customers, which is being attacked by an American president for polluting the American coastline. So clearly time for David Cameron to wrap himself in the union flag and go in to battle for Britain then.

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• delphicvi

  Flogging the Blog! Mr Chu’s micro-reasoning reaches the surface.

• falanf

  BP is about as British as BA – not very. As soon as these companies were privatatised and became international they should have been asked to drop the word British from their title. As for blaming BPs Chairman for the present state of the company, shouldn’t Mr J. Brown share some of the blame for getting the company into it’s present position?

• omasta

  BP, regardless its name, is international. I’m afraid that after the Gulf of Mexico environmental disaster and with its share prices going down, BP, sooner rather than later, is going to be more international than ever.

• Trojan_Horace

  Yeah but Standard Oil (Indiana) which became Amoco was formed in 1889 by that well known Brit John D. Rockefeller… [shom mishtake there Trojan... Ed]

• http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/7O7O4443ILXV56FEVEMLAH6BKE joe

  The idea we should defend anything with the word ‘British’ in the title is one of the sillier ones to have emerged from the right wing press in recent years (up against some pretty stiff opposition). By the same logic we should take sides with British Columbia every time it has a dispute with central government in Canada.

• Dave Tweedledee

  New York is in the USA, Trojan. Really…

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._Rockefeller

• http://twitter.com/greenblakey Antony Blakey

  BP refused to fund a scientifically proven solution to the oil spill. Luckilly there are people who care and private funds have been raised and USA scientists and British engineers will film the soltion to removing the oil in a few days time. What is frightening is the way no-one would listen but in the end private means had to be used to potentially save a public company

• Guest

  If a person is driving an auto and runs a person down, who is to blame – the driver or the auto. BP was behind the wheel in the Gulf spill. And, I know for a fact that the American people are able to understand the concept of country vs company. Neither British or American citizens are responsible for this fiasco. The “blame” belongs with BP.

• http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/OTG3L5T3QHW4ND4PW725VAIWAI amen

  How much USA paid for the war based on lies since 1992-2010?
  How much UK was asked to pay?
  both should pay together?
  People who are killed worth much more!
  who was taking to the court as accounted?

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