BP (BP)

North America

        BP is one of the leading wholesale marketers and traders of natural gas in North America, the world's largest natural gas market, a business which has been built on the foundation of our position as the continent's leading producer of gas based on volumes. Our North American total natural gas sales volumes have grown from 16.1 bcf/d in 2002 to 20.6 bcf/d in 2003 and to 23.9 bcf/d in 2004. Of these sales volumes, 4.0 bcf/d was supplied from BP upstream producing operations in 2002, 3.6 bcf/d in 2003 and 3.1 bcf/d in 2004. The gas activity in the US and Canada has grown as the Group increased its scale through both organic growth of operations and through the acquisition of smaller marketing and trading companies, increasing reach into additional markets. At the same time this has occurred, the overall volumes in these markets have also increased. The Group also trades power in addition to selling and risk managing production from the Texas City co-generation facility in the US. Power trading activity grew by 10% per annum over the period 2002 to 2004.

        The scale of our gas and power businesses in North America grew over the period 2002 to 2004 because of a number of factors: (i) the market exit of two key competitors; (ii) our investment in transportation and storage facilities; (iii) expansion of our staff in our supply and trading activity; and (iv) acquisitions of smaller trading and marketing companies. The OTC market for NGLs developed during this period, but the scale of activity was not significant in the context of the Group's overall operations or overall supply and trading activity.

        Our North American natural gas marketing and trading strategy seeks to provide unconstrained market access for BP's equity gas. Our marketing strategy targets higher value customer segments through fully utilizing our rights to store and transport gas. These assets include those owned by BP and those contractually accessed through agreements with third parties such as pipelines and terminals.

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North America

        BP is one of the leading wholesale marketers and traders of natural gas in North America, the world's largest natural gas market, a business which has been built on the foundation of our position as the continent's leading producer of gas based on volumes. Our North American total natural gas sales volumes have grown from 16.1 bcf/d in 2002 to 20.6 bcf/d in 2003 and to 23.9 bcf/d in 2004. Of these sales volumes, 4.0 bcf/d was supplied from BP upstream producing operations in 2002, 3.6 bcf/d in 2003 and 3.1 bcf/d in 2004.

        Our North American natural gas marketing and trading strategy seeks to provide unconstrained market access for BP's equity gas. Our marketing strategy also seeks to increase margin through targeting higher value customer segments and optimizing around our network of connected assets. These assets include those owned by BP and those contractually accessed through agreements with third parties such as pipelines and terminals.

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