Britain: A Very Good Bash Indeed

When he was chosen to move up to the chairmanship of British Petroleum Co. last month, Deputy Chairman Eric Drake noted that he had already had "a pretty good bash at about every end of the business." Last week Drake was in the midst of a brand-new bash—one that could turn out to be very good indeed. In a lightning move that belied B.P.'s sure-but-slow reputation, Drake set plans to buy B.P.'s way into the American market at a cost of $300 million—one of the biggest single invasions of the U.S. by British...