Previous Snapshots

Highlights

 * getting to know everybody (new team) - fun :) From today on its Johnny, Claire, Miguel, Avner and Anton working on this
 * main point on the agenda: first attempts in... everything
 * finding sources
 * developing a data input method
 * etc
 * lots of talking, planing and experimenting
 * ... and following first leads: Company One (with no obvious BP connection) is registered in Singapore, but also has a US address... then, searching for the address, it turns out it is in fact where Company B, a BP subsidiary, is registered as well. Still just a lead, but not unlikely there is a connection...
 * other curiosities were to follow...
 * bottom line: having identified some 50 companies likely to be in the BP family tree (with BP plc in the center)

Sunbury Secretaries Limited
Listed as company secretary in BP Exploration Company Limited. When we pulled the records of BP Exploration Company from Companies House and it showed profits of $842 million in 2012 so clearly a "beast". Then we thought Sunbury must be a BP owned vehicle for performing company secretary services - BP would not use a shell structure for corporate governance of such a large entity like BP Exploration Company.

This appeared to be confirmed by a Google search "Sunbury Secretaries Limited BP" which finds the following companies with BP in the title also apparently using Sunbury Secretaries as secretary...


 * BP INTERNATIONAL LIMITED
 * BP OIL UK LIMITED
 * BP CHEMICALS LIMITED
 * BP EXPLORATION OPERATING COMPANY LIMITED
 * BP SHIPPING LIMITED
 * BP GAS MARKETING LIMITED
 * BP CAPITAL MARKETS P.L.C.
 * AIR BP LIMITED
 * bp exploration (angola) limited
 * BP MARINE LIMITED
 * bp exploration (alpha) limited
 * BP PENSIONS LIMITED
 * BP EXPLORATION (SHAH DENIZ) LIMITED

BUT... we then pulled a search on Sunbury Secretaries itself from Company House and it shows it is owned by Pricewaterhouse Cooper Legal LLC - with one pound of paid up capital. So PwC is handling company secretary issues for a group of BP companies... when we started to look down the list and it appears as if the transfer was happening all on the same day... July 1, 2010. Is it possible therefore that the mechanism was designed in some way to limit liability in the fall out from Deepwater Horizon?''

Highlights

 * network of 86 company entities
 * mostly build around BP Exploration Company and BP Exploration Operating Company
 * main source: Annual Return's and Annual Accounts submitted to Companies House
 * more curiosities...

Kenilworth Oil Company Limited
Most of DAY TWO's work was centered around BP Exploration Operating Company. Since we wanted to start with the low hanging fruits first, the subsidiary turned out to be a goldmine: it is directly connected to around 50 separate companies across the world, all neatly listed in its Annual Accounts file.
 * BP Exploration (Algeria)
 * BP Kazakhstan
 * BP West Papua III Ltd
 * and many more (see screenshot below)

After having mined that file, we wanted to go up the supply chain as well, so we turned to the Annual Return document. There, you find a section on the "Full Details of Shareholders". Interesting for two reasons: the Subsidiary is owned by BP Exploration Company Ltd. Ok. Not surprisingly. For some reason, however, the parent company is listed as three different shareholders, same name, but each owning a different number of shares (A Ordiniary, B Ordinary, Ordinary). Why is that? Probably just some stock market thing, but would like to find out more about it...

More interestingly, the only other shareholder listed is Kenilworth Oil Company Limited, which has ONE share in BP Exploration Operating Company (of more than 1bn). Hmm. No idea what that means, but why would BP want to have this other company to own ONE share? And why would that other company WANT to own one share? Btw, after a quick search it seems Kenilworth is owned by Clondalkin Group Holdings B.V., a company based in the Netherlands. So maybe it's somehow related to the jurisdiction?

UPDATE (AR): Kenilworth has also 1 share in BP NEW ZEALAND HOLDINGS LIMITED UPDATE (AR) II: according to the BP plc 2010 AR, Kenilworth Oil Company is wholly owned by BP plc. The Clondalkin Group subsidiary is in fact named Kenilworth Products Limited. Wrong lead...

Single Asset Companies
Some of the affiliates are centred on a single asset - this means company filings can include information which is useful such as production and reserve figures out of a single oilfield in a country where such things are normally closed. We will start a list of all companies which appear to be single asset so that we know where to look if we want to mine them later for such data.


 * Bunduq Company Limited
 * Producing 13,000 barrels of oil a day from the Bunduq field in Abu Dhabi. Been running since the 70s. Other partners are Total S.A. and Japan Oil Development Company. UK company filing AAs to COmpany House.


 * West Papua I
 * West Papua III

Zoomed in




Highlights

 * connected the dots between BP Exploration Company Limited and BP plc (through BP International Limited), in other words: visually connected the work of day one with the work day two :)

Highlights

 * experimenting with OC the widget - all 100 companies are integrated
 * using the same method for investigation in Nigerian context (in cooperation with FTI consulting)
 * pulled the AA record of BP plc on Companies House and found the same "Form 20-F", as you used for SEC filiings
 * on the listing regulations: BP plc lists 5 directly controlled subsidiaries in its AA (2013/12/31). However, BP Holdings Canada Limited states BP plc as its sole shareholder in an AR, submitted just a couple of weeks earlier. I guess, its unlikely that BP plc has sold BP Holdings Canada exactly within that time period. So either my understanding of the reporting regulations is incorrect, or BP plc's subsidiaries statement...

... more detail: "7. Where can I find a list of a company’s subsidiaries? A list of subsidiaries must be disclosed to the SEC as Exhibit 21 to registration statements filed on Forms S-1, S-4, S-11, F-1, F-4, 10, and the annual report filed on Form 10-K." https://www.sec.gov/investor/pubs/edgarguide.htm#.U1l1g_mSzyk
 * started looking at SEC filings: in particular Form 10-K (as it is supposed to list 'significant subsidiaries' as EX-21) and Form 20-F for 'foreign private issuers'

http://www.actionaid.org.uk/campaign/ftse-100-tax-haven-tracker https://docs.google.com/a/openoil.net/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AjR-5aT01TRYdGJqRmZVLW9FX2Vqam0ySE1CZ0wyUkE&hl=en_US#gid=0
 * came across other people doing investigations on subsidiaries:

http://www.compssi.org/index.php?title=Subsidiary_Lists:British_Petroleum

Highlights

 * BP seems to have undergone a big structural change around the end of 2013, with several new incorporations. Unfortunately, most of these haven't had to publish their annual accounts yet...


 * we found a 68-page long list of 2,500 seperate BP subsidiaries, published in 2010

SEC filings

 * Searching the SEC database for BP documents (10-k, EX-21, 20-F, S-1, S-4, S-11, F-1, F-4, 10). First 40 entries did not list any of these documents. Most of the documents are not up to date.


 * other experiments to get SEC filings have been more successful: for example, you can find SEC filings for those companies, that are listed on NYSE (i.e. BP Prudhoe Bay Royalty Trust). These files are also downloadable as doc/xml: http://secfilings.nyse.com/files.php?symbol=BPT

NZ registry

 * New Zealand database 'Companies Office' lists a lot of up to date and informative documents. Research shows first results. In particular: search by shareholders. Other than BP Energy Asia Pte Limited, there seems to be no entry for BP affiliates, that are registered outside NZ though. Also, the registry is very user-friendly and has potential for automisations...


 * questions around NZ: is BP actually producing there? And is BP operating other projects (in Pacific region) from NZ?

Canadian registry

 * First attempt at searching the Canadian SEDAR database was without any results. No entries of BP.

UK registry

 * after problems with the Companies House website yesterday, we are back in the mining business... still the no.1 source


 * however, there are some unclarities left: i.e. in a Castrol Limited AA we came across the distinction of a) "Subsidiary Undertakings" and b) "Associated Undertakings". First interpretation: Subsidiaries are those entities, that are controlled/ owned by the parent through a minimum amount of shares (let's say 51%). However, in category a) you find a subsidiary owned by 44%, while under "associated" there is one owned by 50%. So where is the difference?

Highlights

 * started to add companies from the 2010 AR document on BP subsidiaries
 * cleaned up main spreadsheet (exchanging original entries, which were done using different methodology and sources)
 * started conceptualising a way to document the sprint (using the re:publica presentation as a frame)
 * added the complete list of 2nd tier subsidiaries (companies, at least partly, directly owned by BP plc)

Johnny's editing highlights from Sunday night

 * Figuring out how to process the 2010 AR... I notice in the filing system we have lost our log ins so no way to capture who is doing what.
 * Perils of media sourcing: the Business Investor listing BP Alternative Energy Holdings Ltd as owned by BP plc but in fact BP International is sitting in the middle.
 * Taking it down from the second tier companies, work through a group, it can happen quite fast - three minutes per entry.
 * Go to Google search beyond it: it gavce information for example with BP Solar Arabia that the Saudi partners bought BP out inbetween 2010 and now.
 * New kind of company record looked up - dissolution of Melrose Oil Trading. But hardly any info!
 * Add inactive companies but use the comments box at the bottom to add that information.
 * We should also capture the partners at the edge of the BP structures... for instance the Chinese companies who own 51% of the solar ventures there - even if we then don't have identifiers for either party, the quality of the source allows it.


 * New field need: for dissolved companies
 * Maybe extra field for corporate URL or other URL
 * Need also to indicate if further interesting information is there.
 * The Malaysian companies are listed on Google search under a Malaysia country entry on the BP website: we should choose three countries sometime toward the end of the process and see what the company websites say compared to the information from the filings.

Highlights
Questions: some subsidiaries are listed with a 0 percent owner? Can they still be controlling? -- see main page for possible explanation
 * making quick progress on the network through mining the 2010 AR
 * the network is now growing by around 20-30 relations per hour :)
 * learned that BP is only allowed to bid again in the US since March, see: http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/mar/14/bp-us-operations-deal-epa-gulf-of-mexico-drilling
 * In Australia, why does BP (i.e., BP Australia Pty Limited) own 1% of a dairy farm collective? (for more: http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=22516995) (Possible explanation: They seem to have a partnership with BP to deliver fuel to farmers via MG Trading http://www.mgc.com.au/our-products/mg-trading/ BS)
 * came across a Saudi Arabian company partly owned by BP, the Peninsular Aviation Services Company Limited. Seems not to give special insights into the country (Aviation company), but might still be worthwhile checking if we can find more information on it through BP plc?

Where BP's own data start to get fuzzy

 * It may be that the data starts to get fuzzy once we move to the edge of the BP network: in joint ventures with Shell, Chevron etc the name of the partner used is the generic top-level name. It seems less likely that in all the cases we have found so far the parent is directly involved in lower level small JVs than that it is enough for BP's internal purposes - at least the compiling of the 2010 AR - simply to know their partners are "Shell" "Chevron" and so on. This is promising for open data because it implies that nobody has 20/20 vision across the whole corporate web.
 * Another example of fuzzy data are the numbers of affiliates that have other partners listed anonymously under "Other Third Party". Prevalent in small scale operations.

Day Eight (Wednesday April 30)

 * found out that also BP's 2012 and 2013 AR's contain subsidiary lists, so do Royal Dutch Shell's AR's
 * first experiments on scraping the lists
 * continued planing the Re:Publica presentation/documentation

Highlights

 * managed to scrape the AR 2013 list on BP's subsidiaries
 * started cleaning up the spreadsheet
 * confirmed that most major UK registered companies have subsidiary lists in AR's submitted to Companies House (i.e. Centrica, BG Group, Royal Dutch Shell)
 * mostly, these lists are "flat", as in only stating the ultimate parent control, while not having information on the immediate parent
 * further exploration into the world of SEC filings: found that most major US extractives companies have rather short list of "significant subsidiaries", not stating if directly or indirectly controlled by the ultimate parent company, i.e. Chevron; ExxonMobil

Snapshot
Snapshot of the scraped BP 2013 subsidiaries lists, before cleaning up:



Day Ten (Monday May 5)

 * continue cleaning up the scraped spreadsheet
 * seemed to have found an error in the 2013 AR list, BP Exploration (Shafag-Asiman) Limited is stated to be registered in Nigeria, while it is written on the BP website, that "BP and State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) signed a new production sharing agreement (PSA) on joint exploration and development of the Shafag-Asiman structure in the Azerbaijan sector". We are now pulling further documents from Companies House to prove our assumption: alright, proven by the AA of the parent company, which states as the UK as the "principal place of business"...
 * in fact, there are several errors...
 * started looking into the NL registries, well, not so easy
 * continued gathering documents on single asset companies