Bp And The Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill Case Study

This paper includes information regarding the BP Oil spill. References are listed at the bottom.

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

As the National Commission report put it: “The immediate causes of the Macondo well blowout can be

The BP Oil Spill An Introductory Background - One of the most controversial ecological disasters in recent history focused on multinational British Petroleum and their Gulf of Mexico Operations. The Deepwater Oil Disaster began on April 20, 2010 with an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon Oil platform, killing 11, injuring 17. It was not until July 15th, however, that the leak was stopped by capping the wellhead, after releasing almost 5 million barrels (206 million gallons) of crude oil, or 53,000 barrels per day into the Gulf of Mexico. It was not until September 19th that the relief well process was complete and the U.S. Government, EPA, and Coast Guard agencies declared the well breach effectively stopped (Cavnar, 2010).

Deepwater Horizon was the name of the oil rig that was at the center of the Macondo Well Project that led to the largest marine oil spill in the history of the United States. (Ingersoll, Locke, Reavis; 2012) The loss of life, injuries to others, and damage to environment is tragic, however the management of BP before and after the disaster was disastrous. Proper leadership before could have helped prevent the explosion and leadership after could have helped with the cleanup and containment.

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

THe tragic oil spill involving the BP/Transocean drilling rig Deepwater Horizon has caused enormous and unwarranted damages in the Gulf of Mexico, and on life; thousands, if not millions, of people, organizations, and animals face ruination. My thoughts are that, there is no doubt that BP is accountable not just for its disregard of safety measures that could have kept the spill from happening, additionally for the inept, shrouded, coercive, and belligerent manner in which it handled the spill's consequence.

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

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.

In 2010, BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig exploded, causing millions of barrels of crude oil to be leaked out into the Gulf of Mexico. The extensive oil spill created a lot of pollution and far-reaching effects on the tourism industry. The resultant damage to marine wildlife such as fish will continue to be felt for many years to come. Weeks after the event, and while it was still in progress, the Deep Water Horizon oil spill was being discussed as a disaster that will impact global economies, markets, and mining policies. The potential consequences included structural shifts in energy policy, insurance marketplaces and risk assessment, and financial liabilities to be incurred by BP. The law that affected the operation of BP’s business was the Clean Water Act, which regulates the discharge of pollutants in US’s waters (EPA, 2008). Following the oil spill, regulations have been put in place to regulate oil drilling operations. The Obama administration proposed new regulations on offshore oil and gas drilling. The regulation focused on oil and gas drilling companies to use stronger blowout Preventers that have the capability to close an offshore well in case a drilling breach occurred accidentally.

The key causes in the BP disaster case include the lack of oversight on management. There were many warning signs but they were ignored (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2013). BP wanted to complete the Gulf of Mexico project because it was running weeks behind schedule and over budget. BP wanted to complete the well so they started making shortcuts that contributed to the disaster and oil spill. On April 20, 2010 there was an explosion and it was one of the worst disaster America has ever faced. The disaster killed eleven individuals working on the oil drilling platform, and caused about four million barrels of crude oil to dump into the Gulf of Mexico (Iaquinto, 2012). A dangerous buildup of gas in the well caused an explosion and fire that destroyed

BP was the ªrst of these companies to change from a reactive to a proactive

Peter has been working with the Bigness Oil Company’s local affiliate for several years, and he has established a strong, trusting relationship with Jesse, manager of the local facility. The facility, on Peter’s recommendations, has followed all of the environmental regulations to the letter, and it has a solid reputation with the state regulatory agency. The local facility receives various petrochemical products via pipelines and

Absense of BOP Battery: Because of the explosion, the control lines that the workers were using to try to close safety valves in the blowout preventer were destroyed. But the blowout preventer has its own safety device where two different systems should have automatically closed the valves once contact was lost with the surface. Of the two systems, one of them had a battery that did not work and the other one had a defective switch.

The BP oil spill is also referred to as the “Deepwater Horizon” or the “Macondo blowout” (Ocean Portal, 2012). The Bloomberg National Poll described the BP oil spill as a “freak accident”, urging the U.S. government not to shut down deep water drilling for those oil companies who adheres to proper safety guidelines and procedures (Brown et al., 2013). Those who are in opposition to deep water drilling criticized BP for improper procedures regarding safe operations and risk