British Petroleum and Recommendations for Improvement and Success
Abstract
This paper will look at British Petroleum, BP, one of the largest oil companies in the world. Following the Gulf Oil Spill does BP have sustainability in this market? This paper will examine the early history of the company. It will look at the competitive advantages of the organization by looking at its SWOT analysis. The company’s market strategy will be examined including its growing interest into alternative fuels. Its internal structure will be compared to the persona that BP is trying to convey that they are a globally friendly company with interests in developing low and no carbon emission fuels.
British Petroleum, BP, is one of the largest oil and
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BP has several weaknesses. Currently they are holding a large percentage of liability. Some of that liability is due to the Gulf oil spill and the other is tied in the uncertain and sure-to-fail dealings to get a foothold in the Russian oil market. Additionally, the Gulf oil spill has marred the reputation of BP to the United States, BP’s largest customer. This has resulted in dwindling sales and halts to new drilling within the US and its waters. BP also has had a track record for cutting costs that have resulted in two other large accidental spills only five years ealier. In 2005, a refinery in Texas caught fire and in 2006 a section of the Alaskan pipeline burst (Bryant, 2010). These events showed neglect on the part of BP and lead to the record sized fine imposed on them.
In regards to opportunities, we see a progressive increase in the price of oil. Although there is an obvious fluctuation in the price of oil from day to day, the overall trend is a defined increase in the price of oil. There are also new deposits being discovered. BP has shown through historical experience that they are willing to take great risks to achieve results. Some may have not gone as planned, but they have the drive to at least attempt. There current PR state is also open to opportunity. The public relation state of BP, especially in the United States, is at some of its lowest levels in history. This was also listed as a current weakness, but BP has
Strategy/Tactics: Strategies of the BPP were Self Determinism, Armed Self Defense, Community Empowerment and Survival Programs. Tactical innovation of the BPP were Armed a self-defense, and the BPP’s use of the U.S. Constitution and the 2nd and 14th Amendment to validate their platform and programs (seale 20). The BPP created 35 survival programs in black communities and engaged in political activities in those same black communities. As their popularity grew, the Black Panthers drew widespread support from large minority cities and communities, across the nation, including Los Angeles, Chicago, New York and Philadelphia where national Chapters of the party opened. In 1968, as mentioned it estimated that the BPP had roughly 5,000 members nationwide
Simply put, BP pretended like there wasn’t a problem in the way they were handling things, and when they came under fire they would lie about it or put the blame on someone else. What they did was they tried to control the message the public was giving them via a method known as ‘corporate greenwashing’, which is a way of giving off the perception that a company’s business model is environmentally friendly, so it can be thought of as putting more money towards advertising how green a company is instead of using it to pursue such practices that would make it so. BP gambled on this and ultimately lost when the Oil Spill occurred; rather than actively doing something about it, they blamed subordinates and contractors to try and take pressure off of themselves while simultaneously showing minimal regard to the impact that their mistake had on the environment. They only made the problem of them getting a bad reputation even worse when they weren’t listening to the public and ultimately paid the price, losing $80 billion and an additional $1.3 billion on criminal
The company was on the right track, far as it trying to change the reputation of the company. The first step BP took to repair the image of the company was to repair the image. And by doing that, they their name from British Petroleum to simply BP. The next step was for BP to launch its Alternative Energy business in 2005. BP also seen fit for the company to continue “going green” efforts. This is in efforts for it to become more profitable. Their next step in restoring their reputation was to establish a code of conduct. The company code entitled “Our Commitment to Integrity”. BP seeks to unite its diverse employees. This code of conduct was the largest mass communications exercise ever attempted at BP.
There are very few aspects of how a company behaves as a corporate citizen that do not apply to a company of the size and nature of BP. The most significant of these are the sheer environmental impact - not simply of the extraction of oil and the energy use of BP's own operation, but more significantly of the impact on climate change of the actual use of all the oil by BP's customers. The state of current scientific evidence raises serious question marks over whether or not human society can actually afford to burn all the hydrocarbons whose existence we have already identified - never mind potential future discoveries. Twenty years ago, people worried that one day the oil would run out. Now, it is the case that the real issue has been identified as one of emissions.
British Petroleum, BP, began as the Anglo-Persian Oil Company in the beginning of the 1900’s. The founder, William D’Arcy, risked his entire fortune at the hopes that oil would be discovered in Persia. He was success on May 28, 1908. The business struggled in the early years, but ultimately found success. BP has become a global leader in the energy business. Beginning in 2000 and in the years to follow BP has focused not only on oil, but also on oil alternatives such as; solar, wind, natural gas, and biofuels (British Petroleum, 2015).
BP may be ranked 3rd largest energy company and is positioned as a multinational oil company. And their headquartered station in London, operates petrochemical network of its subsidiaries and retail brands ( ARCO; Amoco; Castrol) But this company has come through much tribulations since there accident in 2007 and they are still strong.
The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill occurred on April 20, 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico. This oil spill was the largest spill in history in front of the Exxon Valdez oil spill of 1989. This oil spill released about 4.9 million barrels of oil into the ocean. This spill not only wreck havoc on the marine life but also the economic players that depended on ocean such as fisherman, tourism, and offshore drilling located along the gulf coast. Along will the spill the oil rig which was named Deepwater Horizon also went up in flames. This proved that the issue went far beyond just an oil rig that blew a line. Since this oil spill had drastic impacts all along the coast, BP which was the most liable for this incident faced criminal charges based on what happened. BP which knew the risks of deep ocean drilling failed to take the necessary safety procedures to reduce the risks of such incident occurring, thus was the reasoning behind placing most of the fault on them and not the other companies. The lack of regulatory oversight led to the issues and cost-cutting procedures opened the rig up to possible malfunctions like the one that occurred. During the spill into the gulf, BP sealed the well with cement which seemed to stop a majority of the oil from escaping the well. BP also recognized that the well was “dead” which was proven wrong when scientists still could conclude was leaking minor amounts of oil into the ocean. This spill not only proved to be harmful to the environment but also
Some internal weaknesses are also existed which could influence the company. For the oil and gas company, the main problems refer to pollution and safety. BP has involved in the largest environment problem which is caused by the spill
The BP operations are spread across the world. It carries out its oil prospecting and extraction operations in 29 countries and retails its products in more than 70 countries. It currently employs a total of 79,700 employees over the globe and its international headquarter is located in London (BP p.l.c. 2012b). Detailed company particulars and operating information are attached at the Appendix A. For this report, we will be focusing on the current issues that BP faces, analysis of its financial performance and lastly, valuating its shares with the use of various valuation models.
BP has had a long history of ethical and legal violations because BP chose to put profits above all else. In the past twenty years, BP subsidiaries were convicted of environmental crimes in Texas and Alaska. In addition, BP received the biggest fine in US history regarding safety violations. Although BP accepted responsibility, their record showed questionable and illegal behavior for twenty years. One of BP's major issues happened in a Texas refinery close to Galveston in 2005 (Jennings, 2009). This explosion took the lives of fifteen workers and injured five hundred people and caused residents nearby to become sheltered in their homes (Jennings, 2009). The US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation board concluded that BP had
The oil spill undermines the reputation and market position of British Petroleum, thus its stock prices decline dramatically. Even though BP took measures for resolving these problems, its way was not beneficial enough and therefore, it still requires more advantageous resolutions.
The image as well as the operational business reputation of a corporation is critical to the survivability of the corporation in today’s business world. This reputation is even more critical when a business has is known globally with holdings and operations around the world. Such is the case with British Petroleum (BP) as it actively explores for oil in 26 countries around the world. BP is renowned as an industry leader in oil production and the refinement of oil related products such as gasoline, kerosene and motor oil products. In 1999, BP acquired American Oil Company, also
In 2010, BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig exploded, causing millions of barrels of crude oil to be leaked out into the Gulf of Mexico. The extensive oil spill created a lot of pollution and far-reaching effects on the tourism industry. The resultant damage to marine wildlife such as fish will continue to be felt for many years to come. Weeks after the event, and while it was still in progress, the Deep Water Horizon oil spill was being discussed as a disaster that will impact global economies, markets, and mining policies. The potential consequences included structural shifts in energy policy, insurance marketplaces and risk assessment, and financial liabilities to be incurred by BP. The law that affected the operation of BP’s business was the Clean Water Act, which regulates the discharge of pollutants in US’s waters (EPA, 2008). Following the oil spill, regulations have been put in place to regulate oil drilling operations. The Obama administration proposed new regulations on offshore oil and gas drilling. The regulation focused on oil and gas drilling companies to use stronger blowout Preventers that have the capability to close an offshore well in case a drilling breach occurred accidentally.
As this case shows Human Rights violation BP, The company was lacking operational decisions, such as ensuring that safety standards are appropriate for employees; rather than pursuing additional profits and hiding behind a mask of public relations. Viewed from this perspective, ‘calculated casualties’ don’t provide the greatest amount of good; it simply highlights an unethical and ruthless pursuit of profits and hence environmental destruction and human deaths would widely be considered unethical.
BP tends to make bets that others don’t which is most likely why the disastrous deep water horizon oil spill occurred in the Gulf of Mexico five years ago. The fire burned for 36 hours while hydrocarbons leaked into the gulf before the well was sealed, unfortunately eleven individuals died. It has been difficult for BP to be the best company right now since this falling and they have been in reparation mode since this catastrophe. However, BP is now incorporating high safety and showed everyone that they are very reliable on the recovery of this hardship of BP trying to mix oil with water. BP came together to control the situation, cleanup, and diminish as much contamination as possible into the gulf. In addition, they are devoted long term to improve the Gulf of Mexico’s bionetwork and promise to be more careful so this will not happen again.