Ethics - British Gas Essay

4. Who are the stakeholders in this situation and what, if any, obligations do they have?

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

BP focuses their technology investment in areas that will make the greatest impact on their

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

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.

BP has had many questionable behaviors over the last decade. Some of the behaviors include ethical conduct, fraud, environmental crimes, endangering habitats, and even death (Thorne, n.d.). BP did not seem to learn from their mistakes based on the sequence of events that occurred over a span of several years and little emphasis was placed on the core values and ethics. They disregarded the well-being of the stakeholders while continuing to promote themselves as an ethical company (Thorne, n.d.).

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

BP also known as British Petroleum is one of Britain’s largest multinational oil and gas company. This company was founded in the early 1900s and now serves a worldwide service as the sixth-largest energy company in the world in 2012, measured by revenue. Therefore, it is no secret that BP has integrated many aspects of the energy sector into it company such as; trading, refining, production, distribution and marketing etc. In this report, I will analysis BP’s environmental report of 2013 and write an investment assessment report. The main body will discuss BP as a company and advise shareholders on the aspects where investment could be beneficial or unprofitable.

According to BP’s Code of Conduct, BP ”commits to “excellence and to the disciplined management of our operations” (BP, 2013a). In this

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

British petroleum (BP) is one of the seven super major oil company in the world. BP are the fourth largest gas and oil company in the world. BP has a hand in every aspect of the oil business from exploring for new oil to marketing and distribution. BP originally started as the Anglo-Persian Oil Company in 1908, established as a subsidiary of Burmah Oil Company. The Burmah Oil Company. Would capitalize on discoveries they made in Iran and the middle east. The company would take its current name as British a petroleum in 1954. The company slowly started to expand from their roots in the middle east. BP chose to expand to Alaska in 1965. BP would continue their expansion in America when the gain the majority control of Standard Oil of Ohio in 1978. Also during the time BP would continue their ongoing exploration for new sources of oil. They became the first company to strike oil in the North Sea. The British government gradually privatized Standard Oil of Ohio for 1978-1987. In the last half of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century BP took two major steps to expand their company. BP first major expansion occurred when they partnered with Amoco during this time they also acquired and absorbed Burmah Castrol in 2000. Also for 2003 to 2013 BP had a joint partnership with the oil company TNK of Russia. BP tireless effort towards expansion have made them highly successful and one of the top four oil and gas companies in the world. BP turned a profit of 6.48 billon U.S.

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.

Beyond Petroleum (BP) is one of the world’s largest energy industries, involved in all activities which are associated with the oil and gas industry. This includes “exploring, producing, refining, distributing and marketing of these products” to a global market (1). BP operates in around 80 countries with over 83,000 employees, producing 3.2 million barrels of oil daily and an economic value of $403.3