The Ethical, Negligence, And Environmental Issues

When it comes to BP and the changes that were made in the post-crisis era since the oil spill it is very important to reference their history of safety violations. The oil spill of project Deepwater Horizon was one largest examples of their previous lack of care and respect to safety and the earth. Previous to the spill they have been in trouble with the authorities for illegal dumping of waste products in northern Alaska as well as being fined $13 million by OSHA for failing to comply with safety violations four years after an explosion at a Texas refinery in 2005. BP has a notable track record for paying out billions of dollars to offer compensation for accidents or slight

The key takeaways from this case are the importance of having a decision making process in place, as well as not relying on bias to fix a situation. There should have been policies and procedures in place so that when disaster strikes there are guidelines to follow. The model for rational decision making could have been followed. The problem should have been identified, general alternative solutions should have been discussed, evaluate alternatives and select a solutions, and then finally implement and evaluate the solution that was chosen. Had BP and Transocean had effective communication the oil rig may not have caused such a disaster (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2013).

A New York Times article from June 2010 regarding BP states, “The company responsible assures the country that the impact is small, and a top executive promises financial compensation. But soon after, the business garners condemnation for its lackluster response. According to corporate crisis experts BP made the same public relations mistakes as Exxon. The

²The drill that was used to drill the well in the first place is an example of trading across continents.⁶ The drilling contractor that BP used to sort after a new oil rig, Transocean are a Swiss based company and instead of sourcing its production in either the UK, Switzerland or the US – where most of its shareholders reside, or in the UK where the company – British Petroleum – is named after; Transocean chose Hyundai Heavy Industries Shipyard, based in Ulsan; South Korea, as the company to build the oil rig which is valued at $560,000,000 - a contract which will have supported the steel industry in South Korea greatly. This shows the whole world were cooperating and working with each other to extract the oil from the

who will ultimately be held responsible and will they adequately compensate the families of the victims, BP who leased the rig, Transocean who owned the rig, Hyundai Heavy Industries who built the rig or MMS who conducted the inspections on the rig.

process, which BP ultimately administered, disregarding health, safety and environmental conditions. During the crisis, BP purchased search terms to control the online search links to place the BP response page as a top hit (Kerin et al., 2015). There was an anthropomorphizing of the corporate brand personality when BP’s chief executive officer, Tony Haywood not only became the face and voice of BP, but was BP. Full-page advertisements were corporate’s marketing response featuring it’s pro-environmental green sunburst logo. Announcing, “We will make it right” before the well was even capped (Balmer et al, 2011, p. 11). Tony Hayward, the face of BP day in and day out inflamed the public against the corporation with his off-the-cuff remark, “I’d like my life back.” The tone was flippant and his other responses became obscure with frustration (“¬Deepwater”, 2015). A New Orleans federal judge ruled BP’s gross negligence, and willful misconduct caused the oil spill in the Gulf; the recklessness of the actions made them 67 percent culpable, Transocean 30 percent liable and Halliburton 3 percent accountable and subject to $20.8 billion fines (Mufson, 2014, p.1). The tremendous clean-up costs and fines as well as the substantial damage to their reputation indicates that the decisions made by BP were detrimental to the corporation’s success (Lin-Hi and Blumberg, 2011, p 575).

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

involved persons, puts the fault primarily on the decisions made by BP and its partners on the deepwater rig.

The two of the biggest commodities in Louisiana are the fish industry, and the oil industry. As the oil industry began to grow, BP’s power started to grow in Louisiana. This provided jobs for Louisiana residents and put food on the table. BP started by drilling in about twelve feet of water, but as technology grew they pushed out to deeper depths. By the 1970s, BP was one of the top oil companies in the area, taking the biggest risks by drilling the deepest. By taking this risk, it produced massive profits for BP. It also produced the worst safety records from an oil company ever recorded. Over the years, BP’s safety record results became worse. Furthermore, BP changed their image and renamed their company to Beyond Petroleum, trying

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

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

As this case shows Human Rights violation BP, The company was lacking operational decisions, such as ensuring that safety standards are appropriate for employees; rather than pursuing additional profits and hiding behind a mask of public relations. Viewed from this perspective, ‘calculated casualties’ don’t provide the greatest amount of good; it simply highlights an unethical and ruthless pursuit of profits and hence environmental destruction and human deaths would widely be considered unethical.

BP tends to make bets that others don’t which is most likely why the disastrous deep water horizon oil spill occurred in the Gulf of Mexico five years ago. The fire burned for 36 hours while hydrocarbons leaked into the gulf before the well was sealed, unfortunately eleven individuals died. It has been difficult for BP to be the best company right now since this falling and they have been in reparation mode since this catastrophe. However, BP is now incorporating high safety and showed everyone that they are very reliable on the recovery of this hardship of BP trying to mix oil with water. BP came together to control the situation, cleanup, and diminish as much contamination as possible into the gulf. In addition, they are devoted long term to improve the Gulf of Mexico’s bionetwork and promise to be more careful so this will not happen again.

In this report is a fully reasoned quantification of, our client, Mr. Steven Pearson’s personal injury claim against Mr. Fred Prendergast.

The government was also responsible for activating coast guards and the military in its response to the spill. Hence, the role of the US government here is crucial as a “parent” to ensure that BP acts in the welfare of its citizens.