Timeline of BP in the People’s Republic Of China and Tibet
N.B. Names of places in China have their province in brackets after them.
1918 - 1939: Bulk marketing of oil products in China from BP’s Abadan Refinery, Persia/Iran *
1973: 1st license agreement by BP in China *
1979: Establishment of BP China business unit and office 1979: BP Expro starts exploring in the southern Yellow Sea
*
Early/Mid 1980’s: China reorganises Ministry of Energy, creating Sinopec (downstream), CNOOC (offshore upstream) and CNPC (onshore upstream)
*
1982: 1st licensing round for expro in China open to West companies, ARCO buys Ying Ge Hai block in the South China Sea
1982: BP begins relationship with China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) *
1983: Discovery of Yacheng 13-1 gas field, South China Sea, by ARCO. China’s largest offshore gasfield , part of a spate of promising offshore seismic studies
*
1985: Amoco wins expro contract for Area 29/04 in South China Sea *
1986: Amoco establishes office in Guangzhou (Guangdong) *
1987: Amoco discovers Liuhua 11-1 oil field in South China Sea *
1993: BP Chemicals establishes a purified terephthalic acid (PTA) office in Hong Kong 1993: BP Fuijan Ltd is established in Fuzhou, an LPG joint venture with Fuzhou Gas Corp. 1993: BP Expro starts working in Vietnam
*
1995: BP Oil establishes chain of petrol stations and lubricants retailers in Guangdong 1995: BP Chemicals joint venture with PetroChina at Dushanzi Petrochemical Co. (Xinjiang)
licensing of polyethylene technology starts
Dec 1995: BP Chemicals/Sinopec $200m joint venture Yangtze River Acetyls Co (YARACO) acetic acid joint venture - 51% BP, with Chongquing Investment and Sinopec Sichuan Vinlyon Works - at Chongquing (Sichuan)
1995 ?: BP Expro works on projects to import gas from Russia for Chinese markets *
April 1996: Dr Gary Dirks appointed President of BP China.
Aug 1996: Completion of Yangtze River Acetyls Co (YARACO) joint venture. Financing from Fuji Bank ltd, HSBC China Services Ltd, Bank of Tokyo -Mitsubishi Ltd
1996: Production starts from Liuhua 11-1 oilfield, South China Sea 1996: BP Solar starts in Vietnam
* 1 July 1997: China regains control of Hong Kong
July 1997: Environmental Educators Initiative - BP joint venture with WWF and the Chinese Ministry of Education launched - aimed at 1 million primary and secondary schoolchildren Nov 1997: BP co-sponsors China Environmental Forum, Beijing; organised a special session on
Energy Efficiency & Climate Change
1997: Zuhai LPG terminal established as JOVO ARCO Energy Co. Ltd 1997: Huaneng Amoco Clean Energy Co. Ltd, Taicang LPG terminal finished
1997: Student Exchange Programme established with Sichuan VinlyonWorks, Chongquing (Sichuan)
1997: British Environmental Film Festival - BP joint venture with British Council, Television Trust for the Environment and the Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China
1997: BP Lubricants enters the Chinese market *
Aug 1998: BP/Amoco merger announced
Nov 1998: Ninth National Peoples’ Congress establishes more commercialism in state enterprises and reorganises Sinopec (downstream and upstream southern China)
CNPC (upstream and downstream in Northern China, & to merge with China National Star Oil Corp)
1998: First ‘am-pm’ petrol stations/convenience stores, joint venture Amoco with PetroChina opened in Guangzhou (Guangdong)
1998: Children’s Poster Competition - BP joint venture with Shanghai Petrochemical Company 1998: BP Oil funds the Chinese Education Authority’s ‘Project Hope’
1998: BP Solar project with Vietnamese Ministry of Defence *
Jan 1999: BP/Amoco merger completed
April 1999: BPAmoco / ARCO takeover announced
May - July 1999: BP sole sponsor of a exhibition of Egyptian Treasures from the British Museum at the Shanghai Museum
July/Aug 1999: China National Star Oil Corp. announces Lhunpola oil field find in Tibet. Projected as 10m tonnes, but in difficult terrain, 4,700 m above sea level.
20 Oct 1999: President Jiang Zemin meets with BP executives in London whilst on a state visit, BP seeking authorisation for $2.3bn petrochemicals plant near Shanghai
Late 1999: PetroChina IPO on Hong Kong and New York stock exchanges announced 1999: YARACO completes 1st year of operation with $2m profit
*
13 Jan 2000: China approves plan for LNG terminal at Shenzen; BP making a bid.
Feb 2000: PetroChina IPO roadshow in the USA draws strong protest from Sudan lobby and Free Tibet lobby, plus strong opposition from US right wing/CIA due to possible links between Sudan and Bin Laden
Feb 2000: BP and Enron interest in CNPC Sebei-Xining-Lanzhou Pipeline announced in Shanghai Daily
19 March 2000: Sinopec announces plans for IPO in June 2000
23 Mar 2000: BP decision to put $1bn or up to 20% of offering into the PetroChina IPO. As part of the deal with PetroChina, BP plans a joint venture gas marketing co., to acquire and build up to 150 filling stations, to build a 2nd LNG import terminal at Shanghai, and BP in
conversation with PetroChina over $36bn Xinjiang-Shanghai pipeline March 2000: BP Castrol takeover announced
April 2000: Despite protest against PetroChina IPO on New York Stock Exchange BP buys $580m shares - 20% of $2.8bn offering
April 2000: Construction of Sebei-Xining-Lanzhou project scheduled to begin April 2000: BP ARCO takeover completed
April 2000: First dialogue between BP and Free Tibet Lobby, held in Washington 21 June 2000: John Browne meets Chinese Premier, Zhu Rongjhi - praise for investment in
PetroChina, gestures towards access to Chinese oil retail market & import and
distribution of LNG, inc. building of an LNG terminal at Shanghai, endorsement of ‘much delayed’ joint venture on ethylene complex at Shanghai.
8 -10 June 2000: Dr Gary Dirks, presents at ‘Chongquing International Conference on West China Development’, conference sponsored by BP
July 2000: BP Castrol merger completed
Sept 2000: BP says it will buy up to $1.93 bn of Sinopec shares alongside Exxon and Shell in Oct. 2000. Sinopec IPO of $3bn
12 Oct 2000: BP Environmental Educators Initiative enters its second phase; BP pledges $1m to be spent 2000 -3 aimed at 200 million primary and secondary schoolchildren
Oct 2000: Energy and West China Development Conference, Beijing. Sponsored by BP, together with Shell, Mitsubishi & BA. Addressed by Chris Gibson-Smith, BP senior executive. Attended by all heads of west China provinces, except Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR). Oct 2000: BP 2.2 % equity stake in Sinopec leads to stake in the Lhunpola oil field in Tibet (TAR),
in joint venture with ABB.
Sinopec IPO underwritten by Morgan Stanley Dean Witter *
18 Jan 2001: Free Tibet Campaign files shareholder resolution, calling for sale of BP 2.2% stake in PetroChina
6 Feb 2001: Richard Caborn, UK Trade Minister on visit to Beijing, meeting Shi Guangsheng, Chinese Trade Minister, urges China to provide answers on the impacts of the Sebei-Xining-Lanzhou pipeline - encouraged by statement on environmental openness. 28 Feb 2001: BP demands that FTC shareholder resolution be filed again as a special resolution March 2001: Christian Aid calls on BP to sell shares in PetroChina due to parent co. CNPC
involvement in Sudan
19 March 2001: BP beats Shell, Exxon & others companies for the right to ‘preferred bidder status’ stake in China’s 1st LNG import terminal to be built near Shenzen by joint venture: CNOOC (Guangdong) 30%, local companies 31%, BP 30%, Hong Kong cos. 6%. $600m project, 300 km pipeline to distribute gas in the region, investing $180m. 20 year LNG supply contract worth $10bn to be supplied from Australia and Indonesia
March 2001: BP considering bid via joint venture with PetroChina to participate in project to build 4,200km gas pipeline from Xinjiang-Shanghai
March 2001: BP helps establish China Business Council for Sustainable Development.
19 April 2001: Gedun Rinchen leads Free Tibet Campaign protests at BP AGM around shareholder resolution calling on BP to utilise PetroChina stake holding to apply ethical standards or sell it. Resolution rebuffed.
25 April 2001: BP Conservation Programme Awards announced in collaboration with Flora & Fauna International and Birdlife International; winners include 5 teams from China
April 2001: Sebei-Xining-Lanzhou pipeline 70% complete
April 2001: BP & PetroChina sign deal on increasing the capacity of Dushanzi Petrochemical Co Ltd polyethylene licensing project in Xinjiang
15 May 2001: BP leading consortium to build $16bn gas pipeline Xinjiang-Shanghai (joint venture Mitsubishi, Itochu, Nissho Iwai & Petronas). First serious foreign investment suggestion into the project, much to be done before formal bid to PetroChina leader of the project July 2001: Chinese National Offshore Oil Co. in joint venture with BP and Texaco, completes the
build of the world’s largest F.P.S.O. (floating production, storage & offloading vessel) for Quinhuagdao 32-6 oil field in Bo Hai bay. BP stake in field 24.5 %
21 Aug 2001: Scientists at Chengdu Science & Engineering University announce discovery of large oil field in Quiantang Basin, northern Tibet. Area covering 100km stretch at 5,000m above sea level. Possible reserves of 4 bn - 5.4 bn tonnes of oil.
Aug 2001: Publication of BP’s Partnership in Progress document
9 Sept 2001: Free Tibet Campaign meets with David Rice and David Meighan of BP in London who explain about Ngari/Ali District Solar Project, the ‘purely commercial reasons’ for BP’s withdrawal from the Xinjiang -Shanghai gas pipeline project, and ask opinion on Save the Children Fund as a possible NGO to work in Tibet
Sept 2001: BP withdraws interest in Sebei-Xining-Lanzhou Pipeline, stake taken by ENI/Agip - due to NGO pressure possibly.
Sept 2001: BP and Pertamina (Indonesian state oil co.) announce joint venture to aggressively market L.N.G. in China from Tangguh gas field (West Papua).
Sept 2001: BP donation of an ambulance to Caojing Hospital and financing of upgrade of facilities at Caojing Middle School & Xin Nong Primary School
29 Oct 2001: Establishment of Shanghai SECCO Petroleum Company, joint venture BP and Sinopec, BP’s 50% stake worth $2.7bn to build 900,000 t.p.a. ethylene cracker complex in the Shanghai Industry Park (SCIP) at Caojing (Shanghai)
Nov 2001: BP announces that YARACO will double its acetic acid production capacity to 350,000 t.p.a with a $75m investment between 2002 -4 (Sichuan)
Nov 2001: Dalian Clean Energy Technology project BP joint venture with Chinese Academy of Sciences (Liaoning)
10 Dec 2001: BP & Sinopec announce joint venture on 500, or possibly 1,000 petrol stations: BP 40%, Sinopec 60%
5 Dec 2001: Helios Awards (BP internal awards) - including performance winner from YARACO and innovation winner from BP Fujian
11 Dec 2001: China’s official accession to the World Trade Organisation
Dec 2001: BP donation of desks, chairs, books, sports facilities to Yancheng Middle School, Sanya (Hainan)
Dec 2001: BP Foundation donation of $95,000 in Dili, East Timor - joint venture poverty project with UNDP and Save the Children Fund.
End 2001: Projected date for first oil from Qinhuangdao 32-6 field BP joint venture *
Jan 2002: Official celebration in Beijing of the formation of Shanghai SECCO Petroleum co. joint venture
Jan 2002: BP helps Shanghai SECCO Petroleum co. to secure $1.8bn finance package, including $708m term loan, for ethylene cracker - the largest debt financing ever raised by a foreign venture in China. Participating banks: HSBC, Industrial Bank of Japan, Bank of China, China Construction Bank, China Industrial & Commercial Bank, Bank of
Communications, China Development Bank, Bank of Shanghai, Guangdong
Development Bank, Agricultural Bank of China, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank. Sets a precedent of 1st Chinese bank loans for a foreign investments and leads to outcry from international banks.
Jan 2002: Eastern & Northern China BP Gas Power & Renewables business unit launches it’s new web site - on resources, pipelines, competitors, current project status & news. June 002: Projected finish date for Ningbo L.P.G. cavern project. (Zhejiang)
June 2002: Projected opening date of first BP/Sinopec joint venture petrol stations. Mid 2002: Western section of Xiniang-Shanghai pipeline projected to be started End 2002: Projected completion for Zuhai PTA plant (Quangdong)
End 2002: Projected completion of BP/PetroChina project at Dushanzi Petroleum Co Ltd *
2005: Shanghai SECCO Petroleum Company 900,000 t.p.a. ethylene cracker complex in the Shanghai Industry Park (SCIP) at Caojing.(Shanghai) projected to begin operation. 2005/6: Projected completion of Shenzen BP/CNOOC LNG import terminal. BP to invest further
to expand plant and add 180km to completed 300km of distribution pipeline. *
200 ?: Gas pipeline from Eastern Siberia - northern China *
2007: Target of 1,000 petrol stations in joint venture with PetroChina *