loration in the Middle East. By 1917 D’Arcy was retired and replaced by Charles Greenway as head of the company. Under Greenway BP avoided falling under the dominance of the Royal Dutch-Shell Co. But to stay competitive Greenway needed to find new capital and new markets to distribute its oil. Their first big customer was the Royal Navy. The government injected much needed capital into the company. The increase was huge, as the British government would enter WWI and later WWII. Between the two wars BP was able to grow with huge success. They marketed by new methods, which included roadside gas stations instead of cans of gas. They also entered into supplying gasoline for airplanes and massive ships. (BP Official Website) BP ended up exploring Canada, Africa and Europe looking for new oil and building new refineries. When Greenway retired in 1923 he released his main strategic goal. He wanted to establish BP as the worlds largest Oil Company but not only in gasoline and oil but also with presence in every phase of oil production. (BP Corp. Annual Report, 1999) From this, new products were developed and new chemicals were made. After the war the companies sales and profits had risen tremendously as well as employment and capital expenditure. They also had the largest oil refinery in the world and Iran was the leading oil producing Middle East country.The company decided to expand into more chemicals and spun of the British Hydrocarbon Chemical Co. in 1947. But trouble was occurring in the Middle East by 1950’s. The country had gone nationalist in the 50’s and started negotiating the terms of oil use. Eventually BP was no longer able to take oil from Iran. It would take over 3 years before BP was allowed to deal with Iran. This was only after a consortium of oil companies came up with a deal with the Iranian government.With the trouble in Iran, BP was forced to find new operations in other countries. They had lost their s...
