THE RESEARCH EFFORT SURVEYED: No. 4 BP RESEARCH CENTRE, SUNBURY‐ON‐THAMES

Abstract

THE HISTORY of Britain's interest in petroleum might well be that of the old Anglo‐Persian Oil Co. Ltd., to become the Anglo‐Iranian Oil Co. Ltd., and finally, in 1954, The British Petroleum Co. Ltd. The Government has always had a large stake in this important company, and indeed, there was a time when this country was heavily committed to BP for her development of the uses of oil both here and in the Commonwealth. Since 1909 many other oilfields have come into commission, and many other commercial interests have taken a hand, so that, today, Britain is no longer dependent on the Middle East fields, in which the Anglo‐Persian Oil Co. grew to such immense stature. Competition has proved beneficial and as a result, BP at present needs to fear no one in providing petroleum products of the right quality and at the competitive level of prices. It would have been easy for this monolithic company to have become a “British Railways” of the petroleum world, but it has chosen to keep abreast of events, and to maintain a lively commercial outlook.

Citation

Smith, E.A. (1964), "THE RESEARCH EFFORT SURVEYED: No. 4 BP RESEARCH CENTRE, SUNBURY‐ON‐THAMES", Industrial Lubrication and Tribology, Vol. 16 No. 3, pp. 16-26. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb052748