Britoil plc was a privatised British oil company producing oil in the North Sea. It was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. It was formed from privatisation of the upstream assets of the British National Oil Corporation (BNOC), a state-owned company, in 1982. It was acquired by BP in 1988, becoming a brand of it.[1]
History
The British National Oil Corporation (BNOC), a state-owned body, was originally formed in 1975 under the provisions of the Petroleum & Submarine Pipe-lines Act 1975.[2] Its objective was to maintain adequate oil supply levels.[3]
Britoil's interest in UK oil and gas fields in 1982 was as follows.[4]
As a result of the Oil and Gas (Enterprise) Act 1982, BNOC was split to enable the trading sector of the company BNOC to remain nationalised whilst the oil exploration and production sector, Britoil, was a limited liability company.[5]
In November 1982, 51% of Governmental shares in Britoil were sold off, but this was substantially under-subscribed. The resultant losses were carried by underwriters. The remaining Government minority shareholding in Britoil was sold in November 1985 for £434 million, ensuring it kept a "Golden Share" in order to veto any outsourcing attempts.[5] The collapse in world oil prices globally, combined with the possession of Britoil's majority share by BP meant that the golden share was sold to British Petroleum [6][pageneeded] in 1988.[7]
Britoil's Production entitlement and financial summary was as follows:[4][8]
Year
Production entitlement
Turnover, £ million
Profit (loss) before tax, £ million
Profit (loss) after tax, £ million
Oil, 1000 bbl/d
Gas, million cubic feet/day
1977
–
311
28
(43)
(31)
1978
10
257
54
(35)
(26)
1979
64
215
267
69
33
1980
85
229
506
256
67
1981
117
164
832
435
73
1982
1088
660
103
1983
1252
586
143
1984
1549
688
169
1985 (6 months)
968
365
91
In the same year, the company had been subject of an attempted £23 million fraud by one of its own cashiers.[9]
Key people
Chairman and Chief Executive: Baron Kearton (Christopher Frank Kearton) (1975–79), Ronald Utiger (1979–1980), Sir Philip Shelbourne (July 1980 – 1988),[10] Sir Robin Duthie (1988–90).
After the splitting off of Britoil Lord Croham,[10] the deputy chairman of BNOC, became chairman of BNOC's trading activities (1982–85).
