Ethics Report And Recommendations For Bp

On April 20th 2010 an explosion on an oil ridge of the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, was the cause of the greatest environmental disaster in history of the United States. This explosion took the lives of eleven men who were working on the ridge, and also ruptured an oil line, which dumped more than 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. This oil spill significantly affected the wildlife of the gulf coast, killing hundreds of fishes, birds, and reptile that call the gulf coast home. The spill also affected global supply chain for major industries.

The goal of our research is to seek possible solutions to reduce the risks of offshore oil spills. To attain this goal, we gathered information from over twenty sources, including “Deepwater Horizon oil” from Wikipedia research and an article from the LA Times.

On April 20, 2010 there was an explosion in a drilling rig that was operated and owned by Transocean. The drilling rig’s official name was “Deepwater Horizon Mobile Offshore Drilling Unit” and was in the process of drilling oil in the Macondo Propect oil field, located 40 miles off the Louisiana southeast coast. The cause was reported as a “Wellhead blowout” which cause the rig to explode, dumping more than 200 gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico and resulting in 11 casualties.

Only five years ago thousands of birds, dolphins, and sea turtles were washing up on the beaches of the Gulf of Mexico slicked and smothered by oil. The explosion of British Petroleum's Macondo oil rig off the coast on Louisiana was the largest environmental disaster to have occurred in the United States. This well leaked over 130 million gallons of light crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico, destroying habitats and killing massive amounts of wildlife. Over eighty-seven days the oil spread through the water in a 21 mile plume, creating oil slicks on the surface of the water. Oil within the Gulf caused alarming short-term effects to wildlife in the initial days of the spill, but as these short term effects begin to disappear, BP was quick to claim

The structure of business ethics is voluntary, legal, and core practices. BP and Exxon had an obligation to act ethically in all three areas. Exxon’s 3rd mate was not license to pilot through Prince William Sound. The captain was drunk and asleep and when he was awake and in charge he ignored the Coast Guard’s recommendations. Exxon knew the captain had issues with alcohol. The company hired to do the clean-up was ill-prepared, had damaged equipment, and they also did not have enough equipment to handle the spill. By all appearance BP presented an image

Since the Deepwater Horizon explosion happened nearly six years ago there have been countless reports on the explosion and scientific studies on what cause it as well as its impact. There have also been investigations into the internal workers of BP and they concerns about the rig prior to the explosion. This case brings up social, political and environmental issues to light and the approaches BP had to each of these issues.

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was one of the most infamous industrial environmental disasters ever. On April 20, 2010, a marine oil-drilling dig called the Deepwater Horizon exploded, releasing hundreds of millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. This explosion resulted in the loss of human life, massive environmental damage, and widespread damage to the livelihood of people living along the Gulf Coast. The organization with the largest share in the oil drill, BP (Beyond Petroleum), is still facing consequences of this spill and lost millions of dollars as well as national support. The Obama administration also received criticism

The largest unintentional marine oil spill in human history took place in the Gulf of Mexico in the year 2010. The event resulted after methane gas was released and exploded in the BP-owned Macondo exploration well on April 20, 2010. The fire continued for 36 hours and the oil drilling rig, Deepwater Horizon, sank on April 22, 2010. This event led to the loss of 11 lives and the spill of about 4.9 million barrels of oil. The oil spill affected as much as 68,000 square miles. After long efforts, the well was capped on July 15, 2010 and sealed two months later on September 19, 2010.

After two months Macondo well began gushing crude oil, President Barack Obama addressed to the nation from the Oval Office, he said: “Already, this oil spill is the worst environmental disaster America has ever faced. And unlike an earthquake or a hurricane, it is not a single event that does its damage in a matter of minutes or days. The millions of gallons of oil that have spilled into the Gulf of Mexico are more like an epidemic, one that we will be fighting for months and even years.” Through January 25, 2011, there were collected 8,209 birds, 1,143 sea turtles, and 109 marine mammals affected by the spill—alive or dead, visibly oiled or not (Unified Area Command). It is quite apparent that the Deepwater Horizon blowout is both terrible environmental and human catastrophe and it will probably demand not months but decades of nationwide effort to address and recover (Deep water).The specific goal of this paper is to provide a conceptual framework for identifying and understanding the economic and environmental consequences of Deepwater Horizon oil spill and to determine appropriate approaches to avoid future disasters.

The major ethical issue is to protect the stakeholders and win back the trust of the stockholders. Right after the disaster, the stock value of BP has significantly decreased by 52% in 2 months of times, published by the New York Times. There was also a significant drop in the sales by 40% in 4 months of time. BP was made to pay huge fines to the United States government including the federal costs, the cost to clean up the water and stop the leak, relief camps to the local residents, providing the stipends because of the unemployment, thousands of claims had to be processed and paid to the victims. The investors

April 20th, 2010 an explosion occurred that created what would be considered one of the worst oil spills in U.S. history. The Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig was being leased by BP Oil Company and was located only about 40 miles off of the coast of Louisiana. A surge of natural gas that made its way to the Horizon rig’s platform ignited, causing the rig to capsize and sink, thus breaking risers that were being used to counteract the large amount of pressure from oil and natural gasses (Pallardy, 2015). The explosion killed 11 workers and injured 17 others and caused a massive leak in the oil wellhead. It took 87 days for the wellhead to be closed and it is estimated that over that time around 210 million gallons

Deepwater Horizon was an ultra-deepwater offshore oil drilling rig licensed by BP. It was drilling the deepest oil well in US history, in the Gulf of Mexico. On April 20th, 2010, there was an explosion on the oil rig that caused it to burn and sink. This resulted in the deaths of 11 workers, the injury of 16 others, and a massive oil spill. With a volume of 4.9 million barrels pumped into the gulf (“On Scene Coordinator Report Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill”), and a total covered area of 68 thousand square miles ("BP / Gulf Oil Spill"), it is considered the largest environmental disaster in US history. (Zeller).

“The BP oil spill of 2010 was the biggest oil spill in the history of the United States because in this year 200 or more million gallons of crude oil was propelled into the Mexico’s gulf for total 87 days and thus, it became the largest oil spill at the international level. The explosion of oil rig injured 17 people, and 11 people were killed” (Gulf Oil Spill. (n.d.). This event affected 16,000 miles of

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

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.