Royal Dutch Shell was founded in February 1907. Company’s headquarter is located in The Hague, The Netherlands. Furthermore, considering the enterprises listed on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, Shell is the largest Dutch enterprise figuring in there. As well as, the company is one of the biggest in the world (Fortune, 2017). It is the largest company in Europe based on 2016 revenues ($233.6 billion, (Statista, 2017)) and one of the six largest in the world (Google, 2017). Shell occupies the oil and natural gas production sectors. The company operating in in every area of the oil and gas industry, which is including exploration and production, refining, distribution and marketing, petrochemicals, power generation and trading. In addition, the …show more content…
From the technical point of view, this option was way complex and dangerous for workforce of Shell. The costs concerning this project were calculated around GBP 41 million (Shell, 2017). In addition, the possibility of dragging the Brent Spar through the shallows could have much more hazardous effect on environment as well. Therefore, Shell, after evaluating all pros and cons of this option, decided to reject this alternative and stick to the second …show more content…
The plan behind the solution was to dump the oil tank in deep water of the North Atlantic by arrange explosives around the waterline after this detonating them. The main purpose was managing to breach the hull and sink the Brent Spar. The costs were estimated at around GBP 20 million (Shell, 2017). As a conclusion, the company claimed that dumping the Brent Spar is the best option. They based their statement on decent scientific principles and data. In addition, the oil-giant stated that the second option will guarantee safety of the workforce and lower risk for their health. Based on the aforementioned facts the company considered that this variant would be accepted by public, government and regional authorities. Having these conclusions, Shell applied to the British government for a license to dispose of the rig at sea. The government had no objections; it announced its full support in December
British petroleum has experienced a series of oil spill accidents since it was established, however, the 2010 oil spill was considered the worst oil spill accident in the company’s history. The drilling rig in the Deepwater Horizon exploded and killed 11 workers and released thousands of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico (Arnold & McKay 16). The accident affected different states along the coastline including Texas, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama and Louisiana. In addition, the oil spill affected the wild life as it killed birds, fish and destroyed nearby ecosystems and economies including tourism and fishing. Several factors contributed to the oil spill accident including cost saving and failure to put in place safety
Shell is a global group of energy and petrochemical companies. Their operations are divided into four businesses, which are upstream, downstream, integrated gas, and projects and technology. Upstream focuses on exploration of new liquids and natural gas reserves. Integrated gas focuses on liquefying natural gas (LNG) and converting gas to liquids. The downstream division turns crude oil into a range of refined products, which are then moved and marketed around the world for use. Projects and technology is responsible for delivering new development projects (“What We Do”).
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.
After a long debate with the mangers of the rig, it was determined that the rig had a malfunction and overdue for a lot of updates and maintenance, but BP representatives did not believe it, and pushed the rig to its limits. The rig operated normally for some time, at least that’s what the BP representative were thinking, but they were wrong. The rig could not handle the pressure and it busted. Due to the negligence the rig eventually blew up, spilling a lot of oil. “The oil spill, the worst in maritime history, dumped 4.2 million barrels of oil, and officials released 1.8 million gallons of Corexit, a chemical depressant used to break up the oil, into the Gulf before the well was sealed.”(Marsa, 2016, para.
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.
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
On April 20, 2010 the British Petroleum Deep Water Horizon (DWH) drilling rig exploded and subsequently sank in the waters of Gulf of Mexico. The result was the largest leakage of crude in the United States to date (Middlebrook et al.,
This photo shows the 2010 explosions of the Deep Horizon Oil Drilling unit in off the shores of Louisiana. It is estimated that 4.2 million barrels of oil was released into the Gulf of Mexico.
USDC (2012) reports that on April 20, 2010 examinations of the world concentrated on an oil platform in the Gulf, around 50 miles off the Louisiana coastline. The mobile drilling unit Deepwater Horizon, which was being made used to drill an experimental well for BP Exploration and Production, Inc. (BP), violently blew up, ignited and at some point sank, tragically eliminating 11 employees. However that was just the start of the catastrophe. Oil and various other compounds from the rig and the well started streaming unabated around one mile below the area. Preliminary efforts to cap the wells were not successful, and for 87 days oil ejected unmonitored and uncontrolled into the Gulf. Oil soon enough covered a huge location of hundreds of square miles, and held by the tides and currents reached the coastline, contaminating beaches, bays, estuaries and marshes from the Florida panhandle to west of the Mississippi River delta. At the height of the spill, around 37 % of the open water in the Gulf was closed to fishing.
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.
On April 20, 2010, the British Petroleum (BP) leased Deepwater Horizon drilling rig took an unexpected kick of gas pressure from an oil well in the Gulf of Mexico. The release ignited, and through the failure of the blowout preventers progressed into a firestorm. The fire consumed the drilling rig platform, sinking it, causing 11 casualties, and the subsequent release of 4.9 million barrels of oil into in the gulf before the release contained (British Petroleum). The incident is
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.
Just imagine how much money this would cost. Because that rig costed a lot of money to make. Deepwater Horizon was worth $62 billion. That’s a lot of money. And even the workers called to clean, get the workers, and even investigate this had to be
Shell is the largest oil, gas, and energy company compared to Total, Exxon, Chevron, and BP. Shell is very competitive and innovative because they out-think their competition & always change their strategy to be the best. Shell changed their name from Shell Oil & Gas to Shell Energy to set them aside from the competition which was a brilliant move. Peter Voser, the Chief Executive Officer of Royal Dutch Shell stated, “We are delivering a strategy that others can’t easily repeat, with unique skills in technology and integration and a worldwide set of opportunities for new investment”. Shell recently invested and merged with BG Group and changed the entire portfolio which could possibly make them billions in the
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