Bp 's ( British Petroleum ) Oil Spill Crisis

Oil covered everything: beaches, animals, plants, bottoms of boats. Approximately 205.8 million gallons of oil leaked into the ocean and toward the Louisiana shoreline. To put the amount in perspective, that oil could be used to drive a Toyota Prius around the earth 184,181 times (Repanich). All of this pollution and destruction because of one singular company: British Petroleum. Needless to say, the image of BP was tarnished because of this. What can a company do to come back from such a serious setback? This was the question that was faced by the company in 2010 (when the spill occurred), and is still being wrestled with today. By analyzing BP’s “Commitment to the Gulf” ad campaign, the brand’s desired identity is made very apparent. When it comes to oil, nearly all consumers are involved. However, BP does take specific steps in order to narrow down a target audience when it comes to advertising its product. Despite the hardships faced by BP stemming from the spill, consumers still have an addiction to oil. BP, the fourth largest oil company in the world (“Biggest Oil”), has such a firm hold on consumer society that it is a necessity in today’s consumer landscape. By pushing the brand’s identity to its target audience, BP used branding to overcome a severe controversy and rebuild the image it hoped to convey to consumers.

A little over seven years ago, on April 20, 2010, the BP oil company’s actions created the greatest manmade disaster to the environment in the United States history. In the aftermath of this disaster, thousands of marine organisms were injured and placed in life threatening scenarios. Thanks to the spill, the Gulf of Mexico and other parts of the ocean surrounding the gulf was flooded with an estimated amount of 205.8 million gallons of oil (Sakashita). The damages to the ecosystem and other organisms in the environment was detrimental, but the quantity loss of such a finite resource was devastating to the world. Society over uses and wastes non-renewable resources, therefore, should convert to a more infinite source of energy.

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

As the National Commission report put it: “The immediate causes of the Macondo well blowout can be

On April 20, 2010, 41 miles southeast of the Louisiana Coast, the largest man-made oil spill in U.S. history occurred in the Gulf of Mexico. The offshore oil rig known as Deepwater Horizon, owned by Transocean and under contract with British Petroleum (BP) exploded. The tragedy took the lives of eleven men. The event caused an estimated amount of 4.9 million barrels of oil to be released into the Gulf of Mexico. To honor the brave men and women whose heroism would help save many on board there was a movie

A tragic explosion on April 20th, 2010 changed the Gulf of Mexico and the area surrounding it completely. This was the disastrous explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. The oil industry has been a large part of the United States’ history for decades and the company BP has been part of it since the start of oil production. According to the article “Standard Oil Company and Trust American Corporation”, John D. Rockefeller ran the Standard Oil Company from 1870- 1911 and controlled almost all of the United States’ oil production (Standard Oil Company 1). The Standard Oil company split into several companies in the early 1900s. The British Petroleum Company purchased some of the Standard Oil Company in Ohio and was later renamed “BP” (Standard Oil Company 12). BP leased the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in 2001. It was built in 2001 by Hyundai Heavy Industries and owned by the company Transocean (Blanchfield 6). 9 years later, the rig had an unfortunate incident that had a lasting impact.

On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded. It was positioned over the Macondo oil well when a burst of natural gas broke through the concrete core that had been used to seal off the oil well for later use. Once released by the fractured core the gas made its way up the riser and onto the platform, where it ignited killing eleven workers and injuring seventeen others. The highest-ranking BP supervisors on board the oil rig known as “Well site leaders” observed indications that the well was not secure, but did not take appropriate actions in order to remedy the problem. If the supervisors had done something, they may have been able to save the eleven lives lost that day. A similar accident happened to the Caspian Sea at another BP oil well in September 2008. Both cores were too weak to withstand the pressure because the concrete mixture contained Nitrogen gas used to accelerate the curing process (Brennan, 2013). Two days later the rig capsized and in the process knocked over the riser they had filled with drilling mud in order to stop the flow of gas and oil. Now with nothing holding it back the oil, it began pouring out of the hole. The oil that was being released everyday peaked at around 60,000 barrels of oil in one day. The well discharged oil for eighty-seven days before their attempts to repair the hole were successful. In the end, nearly five million barrels of oil were released into the Gulf of Mexico.

The BP oil spill was one of the worst spills the US has seen. The BP oil spill dispersed millions of gallons of petroleum into the ocean as the oil rig exploded killing 11 workers. BP oil rig had various things malfunction due to BP not following proper protocol. Transocean employees were in charge of making sure all the gauges were correct. They also failed to report the failed negative pressure test that was ran instead they went along with the BP staff that was overseeing the project who stated everything was fine when it wasn’t. Halliburton urged BP to include “twenty one metal centralizing collars to stabilize the cement BP chose to use six instead.” BP was negligent and Halliburton did not stop them, they failed to put a cement seal around the well to close which in turn released gas into the well that caused the explosion. As a result the well didn’t shut down like it should’ve when the fire began even though attempts were made also the “5,000 foot pipe collapsed which leaked the oil into the ocean for 87 days”. The oil rig also burned for 2 days before sinking into the ocean. The BP oil spill has killed hundreds of animals some of them were endangered. The spill also caused problems with the ecosystem which caused fish

Under the Deepwater Horizon, an offshore drilling ring of British Petroleum (BP) caused an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The incident occurred on April 20th 2010, where equipment failed and caused the explosion sinking the ring, and causing the death of 11 workers and more than 17 workers injured. The British based energy company also faced other problems at the site of the oil spill. More than 40 million gallons (estimated data) of oil spewed into the Gulf of Mexico. Oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is a very serious threat for the wildlife as it causes water pollution. The oil spill effected many coastal areas in the US, like the Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida. The oil spill disaster strongly damaged

Absense of BOP Battery: Because of the explosion, the control lines that the workers were using to try to close safety valves in the blowout preventer were destroyed. But the blowout preventer has its own safety device where two different systems should have automatically closed the valves once contact was lost with the surface. Of the two systems, one of them had a battery that did not work and the other one had a defective switch.

The petroleum industry experienced a major maritime disaster that was referred to as the Deep Water Horizon oil spill. The tragedy was a result of an explosion that resulted into the death of eleven individuals (Wolf & Mejri, 2013). Five months after the disaster and announcement of successful completion of the closing up of the oil well, approximately 780 million

In Gulf of Mexico, BP had been operating the offshore drilling rig called Deepwater Horizon which it had leased from the Transocean. During the mid of April 2010, there was explode on it as a result of which it had collapsed. This had caused the rupture in the riser of the deep oil well where it has been operating. It was followed by the largest ever oil spill in which around five million barrels of oils was released in the marine environment of gulf of around seventy thousand sq. miles. The accident had also claimed eleven on board causalities and seventeen critical injuries. More than 2 million gallons of chemical was used to clear up the spill. This spill had resulted in heavy losses for the company both financially and in terms of respect. The

The BP Oil Spill An Introductory Background - One of the most controversial ecological disasters in recent history focused on multinational British Petroleum and their Gulf of Mexico Operations. The Deepwater Oil Disaster began on April 20, 2010 with an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon Oil platform, killing 11, injuring 17. It was not until July 15th, however, that the leak was stopped by capping the wellhead, after releasing almost 5 million barrels (206 million gallons) of crude oil, or 53,000 barrels per day into the Gulf of Mexico. It was not until September 19th that the relief well process was complete and the U.S. Government, EPA, and Coast Guard agencies declared the well breach effectively stopped (Cavnar, 2010).

On April 20, the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico led to the largest accidental release of oil into marine waters in history. As a result, a huge loss of money and life was caused and affected serious environmental damage to wild animals and water pollution. BP was accused of their irresponsibility that it took 87 days before the well was closed and sealed. BP’s shares

Deepwater Horizon oil Spill: BP’s drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico had an explosion in April 2010, causing the “largest oil spill catastrophe in the petroleum industry history”. It caused the death of 11 men and injury to several others. “More than 150,000 barrels of crude oil gushed into the sea, every day, for almost 5 months and up to 68,000 square miles of the Gulf 's surface were covered” (1).