Bp's Impact On The Company's Transparency

Currently headquartered in London, BP is one of the largest producers of both oil and natural gas. BP provides its customers with fuel for transportation and energy for heat and light. BP’s core business is gas exploration and production division and their main sources of production include Angola, Argentina, Australia, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Trinidad, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States (BP PLC (BP) Company Profile | Reuters.com. (n.d.). Retrieved October 27, 2015.). In 2013, BP produced 628,000 barrels of oil each day in the US and was the sixth largest producer of natural gas. Each day, BP sells 50 million gallons of fuel in the US consisting of 7,500 BP branded locations located in 13 states. BP is always seeking new opportunities for advancement in technology so that their operation is safer and more efficient. The company is leading the way in in the energy industry with the world’s largest supercomputer used for commercial research, located in Houston and also the first to use drones in the United States. To further place themselves ahead in the industry, BP has invested over $160 million in 2 dozen companies for advancements in technology. BP currently has 17,000 employees and on average, donates approximately $30 million each year to community

When a typical consumer thinks of BP, he or she may think of the oil spill, which is still forefront in the minds of many Americans when it comes to

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.

This event resulted in the de-listing from the Dow Jones Sustainability Index and the FTSE4Good Index as well as cost millions for breaking these laws. As a result of being de-listed BP is focused on socially responsible investors. Shareholders and analyst are engaged through an annual meeting as well as webcast and one-to-one meetings. Carl Sandlin was appointed in 2012 to oversee and report the company’s progress in implementing the Bly report recommendations. The Bly report consists of 26 recommendations resulting from the Gulf of Mexico spill. In order for BP to be relisted, they must closely monitor not only how they operate but with whom they operate (BP, 2014).

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

involved persons, puts the fault primarily on the decisions made by BP and its partners on the deepwater rig.

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.

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.

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

When we look at the effect of the deepwater oil spill on other stakeholders, we see that they were impacted more negatively. There were 11 people killed and 17 were injured. Although the number of people in this group is small, losses of life and health weigh heavily on the scale as we assess the consequences of BP’s decision to forego the back-up switch.

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.

In its Annual General Meeting in 2011, BP faced protests against BP’s executive’s remunerations and voiced their injustice (Webb & McVeigh, 2011). Facebook pages such as “Boycott BP” and RIP Spongebob, who died in an oil spill cause of BP” have been set up by activists, and have garnered 847,730 and 468,157 likes respectively (Jarvis, 2010). Hence, the impacts on these stakeholders have varying degrees, but are nonetheless affected one way or another by BP’s mistake.

BP, formerly known as British Petroleum, is the third largest oil and gas producer in the world, producing almost 3.8 million barrels per day. BP was founded in 1908 by William Knox D’Arcy in London, United Kingdom. The company operates worldwide in several sectors of the oil and gas industry such as generating low carbon energy, moving oil and gas, and off and onshore oil and gas extraction (BP, 2014). However, the offshore Deepwater Horizon oil spill that happened on April 20th, 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico was one of the greatest oil spills that took place in history. The disaster caused the loss of the lives of 11 workers, severely injuring 17 workers, and the aftermath had a great impact on the environment in the Gulf of Mexico.

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

It is significant to note that BP made a total loss of $3,324 million after deducting the cost incurred in that year from the total sales and operating revenues. The loss is largely attributed to the infamous Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill on the 20 April 2010. The incident was triggered by a well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico, which ultimately led to an extensive oil spill. BP, however, responded quickly by funding the oil spill cleanup and setting up the Gulf Coast Restoration Organization (GCRO) that specializes in carrying oil spill cleanup operations, investigations and public reporting (BP p.l.c. 2012c). In the aftermath, BP has suffered considerably in financial performance. Figure 2.1 shows BP’s share price performance through the period of