The Genesis of British Petroleum, Ghosts of old Tehran……………
“BP originated in the activities of William Knox D'Arcy, an adventurer who had made a fortune in Australian mining….. In May 1908 oil was discovered in the southwest of Persia at Masjid-i-Suleiman, the first oil discovery in the Middle East. The following April the Anglo-Persian Oil Company was formed, with the Burmah Oil Company holding most of the shares…… At the same time, in an unusual departure from the United Kingdom's laissez-faire traditions, the British government invested £2 million in Anglo-Persian Oil, receiving in return a majority shareholding that it would retain for many years. The transaction provided the company with funds for further investment in refining equipment and an initial investment in transport and marketing in fulfillment of Greenway's ambition to create an independent, integrated oil business. In return for its investment, the British government was allowed to appoint two directors to the company's board with powers of veto, which could not, however, be exercised over commercial affairs. In fact, the government directors never used their veto throughout the period of state shareholding in the company. On paper Anglo-Persian Oil was state controlled until the 1980s; in practice it functioned as a purely commercial company……. The oil company, which was renamed Anglo-Iranian Oil in 1935--the year Persia became Iran--became a renewed target of nationalist discontent after World War II. The Iranians complained that their dividends were too small, and the signing of 50--50 profit-sharing agreements between governments and oil companies elsewhere--in Venezuela in 1948 and Saudi Arabia in 1950--fueled criticism of Anglo-Iranian Oil within Iran. Extensive negotiations ensued between the company and the Iranian government. Anglo-Iranian Oil eventually offered substantial concessions, but they came too late and were repudiated by the nationalist government of Muhammad Mussadegh. On May 1, 1951, the Iranian oil industry was formally nationalized. Several years of complex negotiations followed, and eventually, a 1953 coup--in which the British government and the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) were implicated--resulted in the overthrow of Mussadegh. After his removal from power, an agreement was reached that allowed the return to Iran of Anglo-Iranian Oil--renamed the British Petroleum Company in 1954--but not on such favorable terms as the company had secured after the early 1930s dispute …………”
Okay, the original BP (Anglo-Iranian) was behind the coup that overthrew Iranian democracy and reinstalled the shah as absolute monarch. The CIA and British secret services were basically used as tools of British Petroleum (Anglo-Iranian) to reverse the nationalization of elected Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh. That set the stage later for the Islamic Revolution of 1979 that the mullahs managed to control.
Now BP can't overthrow a president of the United States, but these corporations sure can get him unelected, with some bi-partisan help.
Cheers
mhg
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