Anglo-Persian Oil Company

Anglo-Persian Oil Company

The former Anglo-Persian Oil Company building (now Foreign Ministry No. 3) in Tehran
Industry	Petroleum
Founded	14 April 1909
Founders	William Knox D'Arcy Charles Greenway
Defunct	16 December 1954; 70 years ago (1954-12-16)
Fate	Became "The British Petroleum Company", assets nationalised by the Iranian government
Successor	National Iranian Oil Company The British Petroleum Company Limited
Headquarters	Tehran , Imperial State of Iran
Area served	Iran
Products	Gasoline, motor oils
Owner	HM Government (51%)

The Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC; Persian: شرکت نفت ایران و انگلیس) was a British company founded in 1909 following the discovery of a large oil field in Masjed Soleiman, Persia (Iran). The British government purchased 51% of the company in 1914,^[1] gaining a controlling number of shares, effectively nationalizing the company. It was the first company to extract petroleum from Iran. In 1935 APOC was renamed the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC) when Reza Shah formally asked foreign countries to refer to Persia by its endonym Iran.

In 1954, it was renamed again to The British Petroleum Company, one of the antecedents of the modern BP public limited company. The government of Mohammad Mosaddegh nationalized the company's local infrastructure assets and gave the new company the name National Iranian Oil Company.