Research began with the employment of two chemists to look into the viscosity of fuel oil for the Navy in the First World War, and the production of toluene.

[2] Albert received a PhD in Viscosity from UCL in October 1910, working under the Irish physicist Frederick Thomas Trouton FRS, and Scottish chemist Sir William Ramsay.

[7] Albert's grandson is David Dunstan, Professor of Physics at Queen Mary University of London.

[10] In the 1920s research took place into cracking, at the plant at Uphall in Scotland (West Lothian).

Leaded petrol was introduced as 'BP Plus' on 15 April 1931, taking the octane number from 66 to 74, becoming 'BP Ethyl' in August 1933.

In July 1936, at the research centre's annual conference on chemistry, ways to make iso-octane were looked at, with a chemist Dr Thomas Tait accidentally inventing the alkylation process, via the addition of sulphuric acid in a pentane solvent, which was much quicker than hydrogenation over a catalyst.

But it was the Baton Rouge Refinery, in Louisiana, owned by Standard Oil (Esso), that provided most high-octane aviation fuel (British Air Ministry 100 octane) for the RAF during the Battle of Britain, from July 1940.

The Luftwaffe Me 109 pilots such as Adolf Galland, who had 87-octane fuel, could not comprehend where such a sudden increase in power of the RAF fighter aircraft came from.

Additionally, the Spitfire could make the type of tight manoeuvres that would cause the Me 109 airframe to disintegrate, such as when pulling out of dives.

Sunbury also developed the Fog Investigation and Dispersal Operation system for RAF airfields.

The geophysical laboratory opened at the end of 1957, after the relevant staff from Kirklington had moved out in November.

On Saturday 3 December 1960 there was an explosion in a laboratory, with around fifty firemen attending for more than an hour, with three scientists injured.

[17] The huge BP Baglan Bay chemical plant opened in October 1963, with feedstock from Llandarcy oil refinery.

[21] A process was developed for the new BP Ruhr refinery at Dinslaken in West Germany, to make high purity paraffins for the chemical industry.

[22] Research into the chemical composition of North Sea gas began in November 1965.

[24] More energy efficient oil refineries were developed from the early 1980s, in conjunction with GKN Birwelco, a metal fabrication company of Halesowen.

In 1991 Panos Papagervos developed methods to quickly extinguish aviation fuel fires.