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Rockefeller would have been proud Amoco started out as the refining arm of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Trust and became independent in 1911 when the trust was broken up by the Supreme Court. While its first 20 years were solely dedicated to refining, today Amoco has become a fully-integrated company that explores, discovers, develops, transports, refines, and markets oil and gas. The British are coming, the British are coming Following the lead of Royal-Dutch Shell, Amoco merged with British Petroleum in 1998 in a $62 billion deal, making it the third-largest oil company in the world, behind industry leader Exxon-Mobil, with 14.8 billion barrels of oil and gas. BP Amoco produces more oil in the U.S. than any of its rivals and is North America's largest natural gas provider. The oil giant owns 29,000 service stations around the world, including a joint venture with Mobil which allows the two companies to combine European fuel and lubricant operations. BP Amoco has extensive holdings in the Gulf of Mexico and North Sea, and exploration efforts in 18 countries. To consolidate operations and offset low oil prices, BP Amoco announced that it would eliminate 6,000 jobs worldwide (although it eliminated far more than 6,000 positions), including 2,500 positions in the U.S. and Canada. In an effort to save $2 billion a year, the company also planned to close its offices in Denver, New Orleans, and Tulsa, making Houston its new group headquarters for U.S. oil exploration. We're not American...uh...we're British With British Petroleum absorbing Amoco, the resulting entity hoped to take advantage of an exemption given by the Clinton Administration to European companies doing business with Iran, even though 50 percent of its assets were in the U.S. U.S. sanctions bar any American company from investing in Iran, a country suspected of sponsoring international terrorism and developing weapons of mass destruction. When Congress extended that ban to foreign companies in 1996, the Clinton Administration granted waivers to European countries in order to prevent a showdown with the European Union. BP Amoco wanted to develop three oil fields in Southern Iran that could yield 65 billion barrels of oil. Burns great, more filling BP Amoco is also looking to produce gasoline that pollutes less and lasts longer. The company will spend $100 million upgrading its refineries to remove large quantities of sulfur found in oil. The new gasoline, which will soon be available in 40 cities worldwide, coincides with the effort of car companies to offer direct-injection engines that burn fuel more cleanly. Ford and Mobil already have a joint venture to produce sulfur-free gas, leading BP Amoco to discuss a possible partnership with General Motors. Fill 'er up, check my fluids and my e-mail In August 1999, BP Amoco announced plans to include web browsers in its new pumps. The pumps are to be manufactured by Tokheim Corp. and will feature the Windows CE operating system. A schedule for the installation of the new pumps has not yet been set. Buying binge In March 1999, BP Amoco acquired fellow energy concern ARCO for $26.8 billion. ARCO, based in Los Angeles, had oil operations around the globe, and ran more than 1,700 gas stations in the western half of North America. Over one year after the deal was announced, the FTC finally gave its approval after BP Amoco agreed to sell ARCO's oil holdings in Alaska. The resulting behemoth is the largest oil producer in the nation, and one of the largest energy companies in the world. Expansion-happy BP Amoco continued its frenzy by purchasing Burmah Castrol PLC; by acquiring a 100 percent stake in ProGas Limited; by buying Exxon Mobil Corp.'s 30 percent stake in the two companies' European gasoline stations joint venture; by announcing plans to purchase IGI Resources; and by purchasing Bayer's half of the companies' Erdolchemie petrochemical joint venture. Additionally, the company expanded its interests in China, Egypt, and Russia, and invested in Solarex, and GreenMountain.com. Finally, BP Amoco joined MCI WorldCom's global telecommunications service. Cyber gas stations The world's largest gasoline retailer announced in July 2000 plans to spend $200 million to redesign its 29,000 gas stations. The new approach aims to get people inside Amoco's convenience stores, which will feature Internet kiosks, solar-panel canopies and new pumps.
BP Amoco accepts resumes by regular mail only, and does not respond to job inquiries made over the phone. Consult the company's Web site, located at www.bpamocojobs.com/, to browse a descriptive list of current openings, including relevant qualifications. New employees in the Business Analysis department work in the Shared Services Center in Tulsa, OK, where they go through a three-year professional development program. The Engineering and Research division looks for chemical, civil, electrical, mechanical, and petroleum engineers. Those interested in Marketing and Sales can join one of four areas: brand management, sales operations, business development, and commercial sales. Most MBAs hired by BP Amoco begin at finance, whether on the corporate level or on one of three other operating units or streams: Exploration and Production, Petroleum Products, and Chemicals. MBAs are usually called "Financial Analysts" in the corporate area or "Economic/Commercial analyst" in the other business groups. MBAs typically work at BP Amoco's offices in Chicago or Houston, home to the company's Western Hemisphere Exploration and Production headquarters. Many MBAs land international jobs on a second or third assignment. BP Amoco recruits extensively on college campuses and by referrals. The company uses what employees call a "targeted selection" interview process. "What we do is to ask questions that relate to things you have actually experienced," says one insider. "From that experience we ask probing questions to determine what motivates you, what you like and don't like, etc. When it was done to me, I had no idea what they were up to, and couldn't figure out why they offered me a job when all we talked about was my job in a lumber yard. It is felt that we can learn a lot more about you and what you are searching for from you platform of experience than if we ask you 'why do you want to become a geoscientist and work for Amoco?' which most students have no idea based on experience and give pretty meaningless answers." Another employee describes the interviews as "bi-directional": "The candidate must determine also whether they really want to work for the organization based on what they see in the interview team. The candidate obtains a better of what a company is like by speaking to several interviewers as they will all give a different slant of their own experience with that particular prospective employer. "Don't waste your time preparing for technical questions because you won't get any." It is generally accepted that if you have graduated from geosciences at any of the targeted campuses with a reasonable GPA," says an employee, "we don't need to ask a bunch of technical questions since again you got through the course to have the basics, and have little industry experience. Interviews are generally looking for potential." One employee also offers this helpful tip: "BP Amoco is trying to merge approximately 100,000 people at the moment into one coherent organization. The human resources departments all over the world are concentrating on this; so a letter/e-mail to a general personnel department inquiring about job opportunities will not be their highest priority right now."
Goodbye good ol' boys Employees describe the corporate culture at Amoco as "progressive" and report that the "fast-paced learning environment" helps them to diversify their own skills. Some remark that "there is still some of the 'good-ol'-boy' culture around" but are quick to point out that "this old-school style is in the process of becoming phased out." While the environment is different in each department, most are "friendly places where co-workers enjoy battling red tape together. Colleagues treat each other like teammates." Some employees call the pay "a little low," but others indicate that this problem is being "corrected by the company's market-based pay adjustment program." Welcome to the jungle But some employees feel things might be different now that BP and Amoco have merged. "What the culture and work environment will be remains to be seen," says one employee. "Certainly with the challenging oil prices, we have had a lot more competitive pressure in our environment over the past 5 years ago or so, but my sense is we are still far more humane than the 'outside world.' As competitive pressures increase, it is likely that the distinction between Amoco and smaller companies, that one time offered 'less security', will be harder to find." Diversity: a two-way street As for diversity, the merger will bring no shortage of that. Says one employee, "Diversity is a two way street, remember that the headquarters of BP Amoco is in London, England. You must be prepared to work for a non first language English person who is not an American citizen and possibly never lived in the U.S. before their current assignment."
Human Resources
Chemical products;Petroleum products More Company Profiles For more career information, go to Vault.com ©2000, Vault.com Inc
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