Money, Money, Money
The most important tool of the oil trade is money. The big oil companies make it, borrow it and spend it in quantities that are almost impossible to comprehend. The sort of loans taken out to finance the Alaskan pipeline and the Forties field could bankrupt a company long before any oil comes down the line.
The man who manages BP's financial affairs is known in the company as ' Q He's very far from the sober pin-striped image of the city banker. But he's the man that the city bankers and brokers wait upon, hoping that they 11 be granted the favour of lending him money.
Research GILL BARNES
Assistant producer JONATHAN CRANS
Written and produced by TREVOR PHILPOTT