The Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC) was a British company founded in 1909 following the discovery of a large oil field in Masjed Soleiman, Iran. The British government purchased 51% of the company in 1914, gaining a controlling number of shares, effectively nationalizing the company. It was the first company to extract petroleum from Iran. In 1935 APOC was renamed the "Anglo-Iranian Oil Company" (AIOC) when Reza Shah Pahlavi formally asked foreign countries to refer to Persia by its endonym Iran.

In 1954, it was renamed again to the "British Petroleum Company", one of the antecedents of the modern BP public limited company. The government of Mohammad Mosaddegh nationalized the company's local infrastructure assets and gave the new company the name National Iranian Oil Company

Masjed Soleyman (Persian: مسجدسلیمان, also Romanized as Masjedsoleimān, Masjed-e Soleymān, Masjed Soleiman, and Masjid-i-Sulaiman) is a city and capital of Masjed Soleyman County, Khuzestan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 206,121, in 51,530 families.