Enbridge, operator of the world’s largest crude oil pipeline system, focuses on carrying petroleum from Western Canada—including the notorious tar sand fields of Alberta—to refineries in Ontario and the U.S. Midwest. It and its affiliates have other pipelines in several parts of Canada and United States and operate Canada’s largest natural gas distribution company. In July 2010 the company’s U.S. subsidiary Enbridge Energy Partners L.P.
BP (formerly British Petroleum) has become one of the world’s most controversial giant corporations because of its involvement in a series of major environmental and industrial accidents. The company has been the target of intense criticism for its role in the April 2010 explosion at a drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico that killed 11 workers and caused an underwater leak that has spewed millions of gallons of crude oil into the ocean, creating the most serious environmental disaster in U.S. history.
Anadarko Petroleum has used internal expansion and bold acquisitions to become one of the largest independent oil and gas exploration and production companies in the world. In 2010 it found itself caught up in controversies stemming from an oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, both because it is a minority (25%) owner of the BP well involved and because its own deepwater drilling operations are among those now viewed as being very risky.
