What was the original name of the company now known as BP?

The company now known as BP was originally called the Anglo-Persian Oil Company.

The Anglo-Persian Oil Company, usually abbreviated APOC, was incorporated in 1909 after the discovery of commercially significant oil at Masjed Soleyman in Persia, now Iran. Its origins lay in William Knox D’Arcy’s oil concession and the work of the Burmah Oil Company. The discovery helped launch large-scale petroleum development in the Middle East.

In 1914, the British government bought a controlling interest in APOC, motivated partly by the Royal Navy’s strategic shift from coal to oil. The company built the Abadan refinery, which began operating in 1912, and became a major supplier of fuel to Britain and its allies.

When Reza Shah asked foreign governments to use the name Iran rather than Persia, APOC changed its name to the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company in 1935. After Iran nationalized its oil industry in 1951, the company was renamed the British Petroleum Company in 1954. BP later merged with Amoco in 1998 and adopted the shorter BP name in 2001.