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. 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
The BP oil spill affected how leadership was looked at by stakeholders as they were demanding responsibilities from leaders over what had happened. What worked well for leadership in BP was that there was more awareness and corporate social responsibility that was focused on in order to save their reputation. In the National Geographic article “Is Deepwater Drilling Safer, 5 Years After Worst Oil Spill?, the article explains how the oil industry is more socially responsible when performing their tasks explained as “After a six-month U.S. ban on deepwater drilling and a slew of technological and regulatory changes, business is back in the Gulf—with an increasing share of drilling occurring in deep waters at least 500 feet (132 meters) below
On April 20, 2010, the petroleum industry suffered the largest maritime disaster oil spill in its history known as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The Deepwater Horizon oil rig that had been working on a well for BP in the Gulf exploded and went up in flames. Subsequently, massive amounts of oil spilled out into the water, threatening the marine life and those living on the shore. The fire burned for 36 hours before the rig sank into the ocean, leaking dangerous chemicals into the water. Hydrocarbons and oil continued to leak into the Gulf of Mexico for 87 days before they managed to seal the well. “The Gulf spill, which left 11 workers dead and 17 injured, is about the size of Rhode Island, running across the northern Gulf of Mexico between the mouth of the Mississippi River and Florida. It runs wide, threatening the coastlines, and deep, traveling beneath about 5,000 feet of water and 13,000 feet under the seabed,” (Emami, 2010). BP faced an angry uproar from the media, consumers, and environmentalists all over the world. The economy and the environment suffered greatly because of this incident. As investigations began, speculations quickly arose about the morals and capability of the company. The one positive image of BP had been shattered. Customers lost faith in the company and criticized the actions of its executives. Tony
BP has experienced several disaster events in their history that has damaged their reputation with the community. Most of these disasters have ended up costing the communities and the environments within them the most. BP is taking a stand against global warming to find alternate means of energy that will not be hurtful to the environment as well as maintaining a role in the clean-up of the spill areas (Thorne, 2010). With the fluidity of the Gulf of Mexico environment, we may never know the scope of the devastation caused by the spill. However, BP is doing what they can to clean up the environment affected by the spill in the Alaskan waters. During the winter months, BP sends a team to Alaska to continue the clean-up efforts and return
7 Years ago, in the Gulf of Mexico one of the worst catastrophes that has happened in modern history, happened. Moreover, in the United States. The “BP” Gulf oil spill as you might of hear it called. Although, British Petroleum has made every possible attempt to rename the mishap. Years later this incident has had a huge impact in the local infrastructure. Furthermore, this was a compounding effect on the Gulf, 5 short years since Hurricane Katrina leveled the coast. This was just another hit to the gulf residents. The public relations of BP and this catastrophe were atrocious in the since that BP ran away from the camera while they had no possible answer as to how they were going to stop the massive spill. Another impact was sustained by the
The Gulf oil spill, dated nearly six years ago, still haunts the waters today from what several scientists have claimed the article “Deepwater Horizon: One Year On.” In this article, the writer discusses how the scientists researching the spill have concluded thousands of species are becoming endangered from the Gulf of Mexico to the shores located around the gulf area. The article explains the cleaning of the spill had not made as much of an impact as they hoped for several years ago. The aforementioned scientists reported that the vast majority of the oil was not pulled from the water, and much of it has either: sunk to the bottom of the ocean, burned at the top, or made its way to shore. That being said, they also report that the shore,
On April 20, 2010, one of the most horrific accidents occurred in regards to the oil and gas industry. An oil rig exploded not far off the coast of Louisiana. People were injured and even killed. Thick, brown oil gushed into the Gulf of Mexico, destroying beaches and wildlife. Researchers and scientists were forced to find new ways to clean up the oil, in a quick and efficient manner. The immediate and lasting effects of the BP oil spill having caused numerous issues both physically and emotionally. BP has faced consequences for their mistakes and they have since made multiple changes to better the safety and quality of their company to prevent problems like these to happen again. Society should take a look at what happened during and after the oil spill and learn from the experience. I learned a lot about the topic after writing this research paper, and I have a new respect for the people that work in the oil and gas industry. I had no idea how much they risk every time they step foot on an oil rig.
It is well known that in 2010 a oil spill occurred in the Gulf of Mexico. The oil rig Deepwater Horizon, owned by BP, exploded and sank and caused a continued oil leak that released amlost 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, the worst oil spill in U.S. history (Biello). In an address delivered inJune of 2010, President Obama called the oil spill “the worst environmental disaster America has ever faced” (Obama). Given the magnitude of the spill, and the media attention surrounding the issue, the entire topic became an emotional subject and strong opinions were formed regarding the nature of the spill and the correct way to proceed with containment and restoration. Of the many debates surrounding the issue, one which falls prey
The BP Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill was one of the worst spills occurred in the history of the oil industry because the way it was carried out and the way it occurred. The had affected the people worldwide it’s didn’t just affect the people who were onboard or the company because had effects on the environment, share prices were dropping, the company had to pay huge amount into the fines to the governments and also, they had to pay huge amount to clean the gulf water and the affected shore area. The total amount BP spend in fines was about the $56.4 billion. This spill was worse than the spill occurred in Exxon Valdez because it damaged the shoreline of four states threatening more than 65000 acres of land to be damaged. Over 8000 animals
In the case of the BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill, we examine the effects of an organization not being prepared for this particular crisis. The world scrutinized the actions, inactions, and the human decisions made by BP that led to a major catastrophic crisis. The organization was not prepared for a crisis of this magnitude. Our text stated that this type of negligence has been coined the term sloppy management. They were oblivious to the issues pertaining to the deep waters, the ocean wildlife and the habitats of those marine animals. They were not knowledgeable of several things, along with their initial conundrum of frantically searching for a way to stop the continued spilling of the oil into the ocean. One article quoted an official saying, “We knew how to respond to a surface spill, but this is completely different.”(Bond, D. 2013).
In 2010 on April 20th the Gulf of Mexico had seen the worst environmental disaster the world had ever seen. It started as an explosion on a BP oil rig that took the lives of 11 people and injuring 17 while leaking "...at least 3 million barrels of oil..." (Bryant & Hunter, 2010, para. 2 This was not the first accident that has happened to BP but, certainly the most costly. In 2005 there was an explosion at a refinery in Texas that killed 15 and injured over 180 people (Bryant & Hunter, 2010). They ended up paying over "...2 billion in damages and lawsuits" (Bryant & Hunter, 2010, para. 5). With the 2005 incident, BP had cut costs in their operating budget and also lowered the safety standards of the company (Bryant & Hunter, 2010). There
The BP Oil Spill began on April 20, 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico after the BP leased, Transocean owned, Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded, killing 11 and injuring 17 of the 126 crew members. The explosion also sank the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig triggering a massive oil spill that would last for 87 days and leak 4.9 billion barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. After the explosion, BP and the federal government enlisted the best minds in the country and worked tirelessly to come up with a solution to stop the leaks, but failed several times due to the extreme depth, pressure and technical complexity of using remotely operated vehicles (ROV). The final resolution of the leak was achieved on July 15, 2010, when a sealing cap was installed over top of the well. Although the stoppage of the leak took just under two months, the clean-up efforts continued for much longer as containment booms, chemical dispersants, skimming vessels and controlled burns were used to mitigate the environmental damage. The event was classified as the largest accidental marine oil spill in the world and the largest environmental disaster in United States history.
A wealthy British gentleman by the name of William D’Arcy is the founder of the world famous gas station BP. D’Arcy had a thrill over oil and decided to invest all of his savings in the quest for oil in the Middle East. Experts and scientists helped encourage D’Arcy to pursue the venture. But years started to pass and funds starting to run low, William was starting to feel as if this was the wrong investment. Throughout the years BP has gone through a plethora of ups and downs. From bankruptcy, to not being able to transport oil to desired location, and also having more oil than they could sell and not having a demand for it. Also BP has had disasters related to social responsibility, and before the major oil spill in 2010,
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.
The oil spill undermines the reputation and market position of British Petroleum, thus its stock prices decline dramatically. Even though BP took measures for resolving these problems, its way was not beneficial enough and therefore, it still requires more advantageous resolutions.