The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

To begin, the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill was a man-made environmental disaster that occurred in 1989. On March 24, the Exxon Valdez oil tanker struck Bligh Reef and spilled 260,000 barrels of crude oil into the waters of Prince William Sound in Alaska (Piatt, Lensick, Butler, Kendziorek & Nysewander, 1990). Eventually, this oil spread across 30,000 km² of water, damaging ecosystems and marine life along the way (Piatt, 1990). Evidently, this oil spill is considered to be one of the most destructive man-made environmental disasters in history (Dimdam, 2013).

This presentation features the Exxon Valdez oil spill, which significantly affected the environment in and around Valdez, Alaska. In this connection, Group D will explore: the background information of Prince William Sound, the oil business in Valdez and the event of the oil spill. Next, the team defines the problems – that is, the effects of the spill – what damage did it cause. After, we will diagnose the issues – meaning that the group intends to pinpoint the root causes of the problems. The next step is to substantiate that the stated causes are linked to the issues; to accomplish the aforesaid, the response time and level of preparedness will be analysed. In order to mitigate similar incidents, the team explores action plans that have

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

A corporation has a moral duty to ensure that their products and operations do not cause harm to society and the environment. There are significant factors that must be taken into consideration to ensure the proper response is put forth if disaster rears its ugly head. Many times, when disaster strikes, companies do not always make the appropriate response, or they do not remediate the problem efficiently enough to maximize their efforts. The Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989 is a prime example of this. The Exxon Valdez oil spill pales in comparison only to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. (NOAA)

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 BP oil spill was one of the worst oil spills to ever happen in the US. There are many factors that caused this horrible spill to happen; to be exact there were eight failures of the oilrig that caused this disaster. The first failure was the cement at the bottom of the borehole was not sealed properly. This caused the oil and gas to start leaking into the pipe leading to the surface of the rig. The second failure was that the valve leading to the surface was sealed improperly with cement. In addition, there were two mechanical valves, which failed to stop the leak of gas and oil. The crew was also to blame because they did pressure tests, which they did not read properly. This made the crew believe the oil well was under control when it was not. The crew also did not spot the leak before the explosion; there was an increase in pressure inside the well fifty minutes before the explosion but the crew did not interpret it as a leak. Next, about eight minutes before the rig exploded, mud and gas began to come out onto the floor of the rig. The crew tried to stop this by activating the blowout preventer, which is at the top of the well, however this caused the blowout preventer to malfunction. The rig had side vents that were suppose to release this mud and gas, but instead it was diverted to a device that separates only small amounts of mud and gas. This device quickly became overwhelmed and flammable gas was sent all over the rig. The alarm on the rig should have sounded

On March 24th 1989, the Exxon Valdez oil tanker ran aground in Prince William Sound Alaska, spilling roughly 10.8 gallons of crude oil polluting over a thousand miles of Alaska’s coast (Gerken, 2014). At its time, it was the worst oil spill in history, lasting for several days. It was caused by the negligence of the captain who was reportedly intoxicated at the time. The oil was very quickly dispersed over a wide area of land because of extreme tidal fluctuations and a storm several days after the spill (http://www.eoearth.org/view/article/152720).

The movie, Deepwater Horizon, was inspired by the events of the BP oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, 2010. It all started with engineer, Mike Williams and the rig supervisor, Jimmy Harrell. The two men were called up, along with a few more crew members, to fly out to Deepwater Horizon and work on the rig for three weeks. Upon arrival, they were informed that the team whose job it was to run the cement log on the concrete foundation of the rig were leaving early without doing their job. Mr. “Don” Vidrine, a top BP company man, was the enforcer of this order. Don sent them on their way because the rig was behind schedule and had lost too much money to be attempting to waste more on something that was, in his mind, unimportant. The result of that decision led to a catastrophe.

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.

On April 20, 2010, at 9:45 pm, the Deepwater Horizon experienced an explosive blowout on a rig located in the Gulf of Mexico. The explosion was about 40 miles of the Louisiana coast. With the flow of gas leaking out, it caused the death of eleven workers on the rig. About two days later the rig sank, which caused quite a lot of damage to a pipeline that laid drawn-out through 5,000 feet of water. As a result, the oil begin pouring from the damaged pipes into the ocean nearby, at the incredible rate. The Deepwater Horizon was built in 2001, and was owned by the Transocean Ltd. There are many people who blame the owners of the oil drilling company and its associates for allowing the disaster to occur on its watch. The resulting explosions at Deepwater Horizon and the oil spill that occurred after, enraged millions of people around the world. Consequently, the BP Company has faced multiple inspections from the U.S government, which is trying to hold BP responsible for its role in the oil spill.

In the following text we will analyze the Deep Water Horizon Oil Spill from some of the well-known ethical perspectives.

In Gulf of Mexico, BP had been operating the offshore drilling rig called Deepwater Horizon which it had leased from the Transocean. During the mid of April 2010, there was explode on it as a result of which it had collapsed. This had caused the rupture in the riser of the deep oil well where it has been operating. It was followed by the largest ever oil spill in which around five million barrels of oils was released in the marine environment of gulf of around seventy thousand sq. miles. The accident had also claimed eleven on board causalities and seventeen critical injuries. More than 2 million gallons of chemical was used to clear up the spill. This spill had resulted in heavy losses for the company both financially and in terms of respect. The

Recently, oil spill management has become a serious concern and subsequently, it has become a big issue as it takes a large, specifically trained team effort to solve the devastating problem. It also requires consistent efforts of the workforce. The Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico was perhaps another major contributing factor to highlighting the need for Oil Spill Management to be addressed. The director of the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Regulation and Enforcement, Michael Bromwich stated that this oil spill proved that oil and gas organizations were not prepared to deal with oil spills. (Merolli, 2010).

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.

In the month of April 2010, Deepwater Horizon exploded, killing 11 workers and releasing oil from the well into an ocean. This paper will discuss BP management, ethical and social behavior. BP along with a few of its partners Transocean and Halliburton was involved in the gulf oil spill. The explosion of the drilling rig Deepwater Horizon was the root cause of the oil spill. This paper will focus on BP organization behavioral issues that caused the economic, environmental, and human losses. The research further focuses on what BP leadership could have done as a precautionary measure using highest ethics and management behavior.