Yes, BP.

I'll have to look and see if I can find an article about what I was alluding to regarding the US dollar being used as the official currency for the Mideast oil transactions.

I consider the USA and the UK (and their biggest corporations) to really be a single player in this game...that is, the Anglo-American axis (which includes my country, Canada, as well as Australia). It is that group of Anglo nations which are working together in the world as what amounts to an Anglo-American axis. The historical centre of power was once in London, but it has since set up additional power centres in New York and Washington. I find it ironical that a USA which once fought a revolution against the British Empire has now become, in effect, the virtual reincarnation of the British Empire, under a new flag and a new set of governmental institutions. Like the British once did, the Americans now possess the world's greatest navy and the world's longest military reach, and the sun never sets on their coporate holdings. The British are still very much involved in the imperial game, but they are playing second fiddle to the USA in that regard....a sort of junior partner. Still, I think London continues to exert major financial influence in the running of the great game.