Profile BP Began Life in Fields of Persia

LONDON, Aug 11 (Reuters)- British Petroleum Co Plc, which on Tuesday announced plans to merge with Amoco Corp of the United States, started life at the turn of the twentieth century in the then untapped fields of Persia. English adventurer William D'Arcy negotiated a concession with the grand vizier of Persia in 1901 and seven years later his company became the first to strike oil in the Middle East. D'Arcy then formed with Burmah Oil the Anglo-Perisan Oil Co to exploit that huge find.

The British government began its ties with the company in 1914, at the prompting of Winston Churchill, took a 51 percent stake in an Anglo-Persian group in need of funds.

Building on the company's exploration prowess in the Middle East, Anglo- Persian had interests in the first oil discoveries in Iraq in 1927 and in Kuwait in 1938.

In the face of a potential oil glut in 1928, Anglo-Persian and its main competitors came to a secret "as is" agreement, which was to fix global production and prices for two decades.

Chairman William Fraser refused to renegotiate the group's concession with Iran-- despite other companies arranging 50-50 deals with producer nations-- with the result that its Iranian assets were seized in 1951.

Following a coup in Iran in 1953 which installed the shah as leader, an international consortium resumed business, allowing Anglo-Persian a 40 percent interest.

Anglo-Persian changes its name to British Petroleum in 1954.

BP had major finds in Alaska in 1969 and in the North Sea a year later. Then in 1971, BP swapped its Alaskan reserves for an eventual 55 percent interest in SOHIO.

Britain raised its stake in BP by a further 20 percent in 1975, before reducing its holdings through public offerings in 1977 and 1979. It sold the bulk of its remaining shares in 1987 and its last two percent stake in 1996.

In 1986 the group acquired the remaining shares in SOHIO and a year later it bought North Sea oil and gas producer Britoil.

Robert Horton became chairman in 1990 and undertook to streamline the company and expand exploration in new areas.

However, following BP's first ever quarterly losses, Horton was axed in 1992 and the company began to liquidate assets.

The current chief executive John Browne took up his post in 1994, the year BP announceda big gas discovery in Colombia.

BP then merged its European fuel and lubircants operations with those of Mobil Corp in 1996.

The following year it announced a 120 million barrel find which it hoped to help stem its declining Alaskan oil output.

Also in 1997, BP paid $743 million for a 10 percent stake in Sidanko, one of Russia's largest oil companies.

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