The Bp Oil Spill Crisis

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.

The oil spill has been subject to global media coverage. On the 21st of April 2010 news broadcasting companies were broadcasting the news of this oil disaster all over the world. Every day in almost any general newspaper there would be an article based on both the chief executive officer (CEO) of BP and how he planned to solve the disaster or just reporting the disaster again. This is a great example of Globalisation. Due to the improvement of technologies such as the internet/ broadband and other improvements in telecommunications the globe could now receive instant news /coverage about almost anything almost anywhere in the world. Meaning that people are now more aware of what is going on in the world.

My group and I also ensured that we all did our shares of the work. During our main research stage, we split up what everyone would research, and tackled that on our own. Then, we met up and discussed our research findings. We then narrowed down the research together to find a final presentation idea. This is shown under Figure 4 in my Evolving Skills Proof document. We also ensured that all of our ideas were considered, and then we narrowed down all of our presentation ideas to come up with one final presentation. This is shown under Figure 5 in my Evolving Skills Proof

The oil that has escaped the well has now spread throughout the ocean and some have floated to the top forming oil slicks on the surface which are being pushed by the wind and spreading rapidly damaging deep sea corals and other ecosystems. In order to contain the spill and begin to clean up, BP must quickly devise a plan of action to prevent further damage, destruction and loss of marine life. I have been obtained as a consultant by BP global to advise the CEO of BP during the oil spill disaster. This letter contains recommendations outlining the optimal leadership approach which will be most effective in the handling

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).

The BP Oil Spill was a very complex situation with a wide range of stakeholders. After the explosion and discovery of leaking oil, the National Contingency Plan took effect establishing something called a “Unified Area Command” where local, state and federal authorities would join forces with the private sector to carry out the

According to Elliott, D. (2015), the BP oil crisis was extremely hard on marine life and the coastal areas of the Gulf. Birds and sea life were all negatively affected. Many were coated with oil, and the cleanup was extremely difficult. The wild life death rate for the gulf area was high. BP has worked to clean up the mess, but the effects may linger for a long period. Oil is still on the bottom of the ocean, and buried in the sand. Wild life is still being affected. The author notes that tourism has rebounded, but some of the seafood industries are struggling.

Water pollution is the contamination of water by untreated sewage as well as human waste, often to the point when water becomes undrinkable or usable. According to Woodford C, around one-half of all ocean contamination is caused by sewage and waste. “Each year, the world generates perhaps 5–10 billion tons of industrial waste, much of which is pumped untreated into rivers, oceans, and other waterways.” (“Woodford C.” 19). “Many water bodies near urban areas (cities and towns) are highly polluted. This is the result of both garbage dumped by individuals and dangerous chemicals legally and illegally dumped by manufacturing industries, health center, schools and market places.” (“ESchooltoday” page 4, (3)). As a result of all this pollution in water, a lot of people are dying. Furthermore, Britain tried to force the government to take some kind of action to purify the water so that people can get no illnesses with safe drinking water in 1990’s. “In the early 1990s, when surfers in Britain grew tired of catching illnesses from

When chemicals are involve, people think, especially the environmentalist that it is bad for the ocean but if the oil remains untreated it becomes a disaster. The BP oil spill which happened on April 2010, where about 200 million gallon of oil spilled in the Gulf of Mexico, they used dispersants called Corexit 9500 and 9527. Reporters say that the dispersants are killing the ocean coral. However, on the journal there is a good news for the use of chemical to disperse oil spill. Eenennaam, Wei, Grolle, Foekema and Murk argued that dispersants create “marine snow”. They explained and define marine snow as plants and animals near the surface of the ocean die and decay, they fall toward the sea floor. The decaying material is referred to as “marine

BP Oil Spill which is also known as Gulf of Mexico and Deepwater Horizon oil spill is the largest marine oil spill throughout the history which was caused by an explosion on offshore oil platform namely Deepwater Horizon on 20th April, 2010 located at the Mississippi River delta. British Petroleum (BP) was the principal developer of Macondo Prospects oil field where the accident held. The accident occurred when they were closing the oil well for using it in future prospects. BP claimed that on July 15, 2010 they capped the well by stopping the flow of into the Gulf of Mexico in 86 days. Following the hazards of oil spill U.S. Government held British Petroleum responsible for the

This week’s case study, The BP Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill, examines the devastating tragedy of the Deepwater Horizon. The case study calls upon established safety protocols and evacuation plans implemented by the Deepwater Horizon. Ownership of blame was continually passed from one organization to another.

Over the years, the media – including print, online, and broadcast – has bombarded the public with apologies made by public companies that have stumbled upon unforeseen crisis situations. As Hearit (2006) mentioned, whether it be a product that is defective and causes egregious harm to people, an illegal scheme concocted by employees of an organization, or an accident that results in the loss of life, organizations are more often than not the victims of their own misdeeds (p.2). For instance, between 2009-2010 Toyota experienced crisis where by acceleration and brake problems led to more than 8.5 million auto recalls (Liker, 2011). Just three years later, General Motors made headlines – like The New York Times – after experiencing a similar

Leadership’s failure to ensure safety over cost allowed the Deepwater Horizon incident to happen. Some aspects of lessons learned from the reviewing of the facts of the incident before April 20, 2010 and analyzing the evidence during the crisis allow leaders to improve and prepare better for crisis management. The first lesson learned was crises expose a dysfunctional organizational culture (Corkingdale, 2010). The lack of urgency by BP leaders to react to the crisis showed the true culture of the organization, which was to ignore safety warnings. Leadership must understand how their actions during the crisis will affect public perception of their organization.

about the dangers of oil and how to clean it up in case it were to get released into the wild. Mitigation is the actions to reduce or eliminate the risks to people and property from such hazards and their effects (Haddow et al, 2014). This definition of mitigation seems to say that, when dealing with risks, they want to greatly reduce any dangers that might come with each risk, and want to save as many lives or property from severe damage or in some cases death. In the case of the BP oil spill, one mitigation would be so that no oil would get out and affect the ocean or marine life. Most oil rigs come with safety standards or protocols in order to mitigate any dangers it might have, to keep the marine life safe, and the safety of the workers on the oil rig. Here the lessons learned could apply to the BP oil spill to make sure it didn’t happen in the first place. In fact, the disaster could have been prevented through proper training, education, and exercises (Haddow et al, 2014). Here we can see that the BP oil spill could have been prevented if the right precautions were put in place and had the people running the oil rig had proper training on how to handle an emergency if it were to occur on their watch.

The BP oil spill has offered a moment for reflection for leaders around the world about their most basic beliefs. To many people, the BP oil spill has brought home the idea that future corporate leaders must develop personal ethical standards for making decisions that go beyond just a financial calculation. There are plenty of business practices that are legal, but fall short in being ethical. But I believe being ethical does pay off, slowly and steadily. You may lose some opportunities, but your reputation and self-perception is