Financial Analysis of British Petroleum Company Plc - Article Example

The paper "Financial Analysis of British Petroleum Company Plc" is a perfect example of a business article. The paper discusses the British Petroleum Company PLC, based in Britain, as the company to be assessed. As a new stock analyst, a group of investors can give advice on investing in the British Petroleum Company PLC after careful financial analysis of the company.

The British Petroleum Company PLC which was formerly the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC) is providing worldwide services in Africa, North and South America, Australia, Europe and Asia. Their head offices are found in Europe particularly in London, the United Kingdom and in England.

Most of the companies resources are coming from the Caspian Sea, the Mediterranean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. They also have their operations offshore specifically in Angola, Azerbaijan, Trinidad, Algeria, Alaska and the famous BTC pipeline or the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan or the BTC pipeline running through Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey to the Ceyhan Marine Terminal.

History

In 1901, William Knox requested the then Iran president to search for oil. In 1908 they found the oil and from that time the British petroleum firm came into existence.

It was in 2000 that the name was changed to the British Petroleum Plc. Its logo was made of a green and yellow sunflower pattern. It became controversial as the emblem of the company’s alternative and environment-friendly awareness. However, the green logo did not matter to people because it was listed as one of the “ten worst corporations” in 2001 and 2006.

In 1992, Greenpeace International named the company as one of Scotland’s largest polluters. It was during this time that the BTC pipeline was condemned for the company’s human rights, environmental and safety violations. Together with the Royal Dutch/Shell or RD, the BP was also assessed to be responsible for most of the climate change due to the oil industry.

Although it provides various services and products, it is still bound to have problems and controversies. Last March 2005, BP's Texas City Refinery in Texas City – one of the largest refinery in the United States and in the world – had an explosion due to an unidentified ignition source injured where almost 100 people and led to the death of 15 people including those who are working at BP.