Preview

How Did BP Oil Spill?

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
595 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
How Did BP Oil Spill?
In 2010, BP encountered two predicaments. The first was stopping a major oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico after an oilrig exploded. The second was persuading people that they were doing just so.

The company damaged its environmentally friendly image when the Deepwater Horizon oilrig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, 2010, eventually creating the largest marine oil spill in history. Eleven workers were killed, an estimated 6,000 barrels of oil leaked per day, and years of irreversible damage occurred to countless marine life. However drastic these circumstances, BP’s true nightmare proved to be their lack of effective public relations efforts.

Communication, action, and empathy are crucial in a proper response to a serious crisis. Unfortunately, BP lacked all three.
…show more content…
However, the U.S federal government estimated the number to be closer to 6,000 barrels of oil, which instantly hurt BP’s credibility. “… The Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean. The amount of oil and dispersant we are putting into it is tiny in relation to the total water volume,” said then BP CEO Tony Hayward, in an attempt to downplay the disaster. Yet, as the oil continued to spill in the weeks following the initial explosion, U.S government officials and the general public began to realize the disastrous environmental effects that the spill would ultimately cause. The company’s lack of truthful communication led to distrust among the public.

BP also failed to take responsibility, as well as proper action, during the aftermath of the rig explosion. In an interview with ABC, BP CEO Tony Hayward said:

“Ah, this wasn’t our accident. This was a drilling rig operated by another company. It was their people, their systems, and their processes. We are responsible not for the accident but we are responsible for the oil, dealing with it and cleaning the situation

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Discussion

    • 559 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The oil spill disaster in the gulf took a huge toll on the price of fuel in the United States. Most people felt that seeing gas prices steadily increase was a way for oil companies to make huge profits, and though gas companies did make large profits, the situation at hand was more serious than ever imagined. Initially, no one truly understood the significance of the spill and how much oil was actually leaking into the gulf; however finding out the large amount of oil being lost made me realize the severity of the situation. I don’t think it was all about making money, but rather BP not being proactive to handle a situation that they knew had the…

    • 559 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Bp Oil Spill

    • 1713 Words
    • 7 Pages

    The BP Oil Spill has been a huge environmental issue; it was the worst oil disaster in US history. The government estimated up to 2.6 million gallons per day with a total of 205.8 million got into the gulf. Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida all had miles on miles of surface oil problems. BP put nearly 2 million gallons of chemical “dispersants” into the ocean, which actually make the oil more toxic to ocean life. It’s considered and environmental issue because of its massive amount of damage and was caused by humans, the oil company. The spill made more than 1,000 miles of shoreline covered in oil.…

    • 1713 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Why Did BP Oil Spill?

    • 98 Words
    • 1 Page

    BP’s primary goal was to clean up the spill as quickly as possible. It wanted to plug the hole in the oilrig to prevent more oil from dispersing into the ocean. BP also wanted to restore the environment, the local economy’s that were affected, and also their own image as an organization.…

    • 98 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Concerning the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion on April 20, 2010, which escalated into a massive amount of oil spillage from the well reservoir as the oilrig sunk killing eleven crewmembers on board. The key players related to the rig explosion are British Petroleum (BP), Transocean, rig owner, and Halliburton. BP is one of the world 's largest energy companies, providing its customers with fuel for transportation, energy for heat and light, retail services and petrochemicals products for everyday items. (“BP at a glance,” 2010) Transocean, the world’s largest offshore drilling contractor and the owner of Deepwater Horizon rig, provides the most versatile fleet of mobile offshore drilling units to help clients find and develop oil and natural gas reserves. (“A Next Generation Driller is INNOVATIVE,” 2010) Halliburton, founded in 1919, is one of the world’s largest providers of products and services to the energy industry. With over 50,000 employees in approximately 70 countries, the company serves the upstream oil and gas industry throughout the life cycle of the reservoir - from locating hydrocarbons and managing geological data, to drilling and formation evaluation, well construction and completion, and optimizing production…

    • 1476 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Bp Oil Spill

    • 2831 Words
    • 12 Pages

    The match that lit the fuse of the gigantic spill was a massive explosion on April 20th, 2010, on the Deepwater Horizon oil-drilling platform that killed eleven workers. The spill had already been going on for three months, gushing crude oil into the gulf, before it was finally capped on July 15th, 2010. Even after it had been capped for forty days, the people whose environment was directly affected had not yet been notified of any type of oil spill. An article by World Book confirms how the spill was started: “The explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil-drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, kills eleven workers and creates the worst environmental disaster in US history. For nearly three months, as BP struggles to cap the leaking well, about 4.9 million barrels of oil gushes into the Gulf.” (World Book 2011) This explosion directly affected at least eleven families who lost loved ones at the beginning of an enormous environmental crisis…

    • 2831 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    There were always contorversries related to BP's operatons. People were divied into those, who treated BP as a company providing petrol of good quality and wiling to purchase petrol from Britsh giant, and to those thinking that BP is one of those big companies which doesn't care about anything but profit and acting unethical on their way to that profit.…

    • 3247 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    BP wrote safety documents that ensured government officials that they had the technology in place should a mechanical failure occur in American waters. The loss of 11 workers and the destruction of an ecosystem has forced the government and the American public to realize that BP and other companies have no qualms about ensuring that no regulation will stand in the way of their profit margins. In response to this fact, the government has tried to ensure the welfare of Gulf citizens by compelling BP to create a twenty-billion fund to help citizens affected by the spill ensure that they can survive while BP attempts to clean up this mess. Notice that BP did not offer to create this fund until approached by the President of the United States. This is because companies realize that it is not cost-effective to ensure that their practices do not harm those not involved with the company.…

    • 312 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Before it was capped, the well 5000 feet (1500 meters) below the sea surface leaked at least 200 million gallons of oil. (Some estimates are far larger.) One tactic BP used was to spray hundreds of thousands of gallons of DISPERSANTS into the gushing clouds of oil and onto surface of the ocean. Dispersants are a mixture of organic solvents and detergents which enable the oil to mix into the water. While this largely succeeded in getting the oil “out of sight, out of mind” by diluting it into a much larger volume of water below the surface, and helped increase of speed of chemical and bacterial breakdown of the oil somewhat, much of the oil is still there, just spread out more, and the dispersants themselves are also quite toxic. The full environmental damage of this spill and its “cleanup” will take years to…

    • 1007 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The reason why BP got involved in so much questionable conducts is because at first they didn’t want to spend the money on fixing the stuff. They have been ignoring all these red flags and at the end they ended up spending much money. They could of saved a lot of money if they had fixed the problem before the incident occurred. The reason why they ended having so much trouble is because they didn’t take care of their stakeholders. Their major concern in those types of business should be the safety of their employees. We all know that those places aren’t the safest place in the world, which is why BP has to make sure to keep their workers in a safe environment.…

    • 456 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    The BP Oil Spill which happened on April 20, 2010, was the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history releasing approximately 185 million gallons of crude oil into the gulf. This event was the result of a wellhead on the Deepwater Horizon oil drilling platform blowing out in the Gulf of Mexico approximately 40 miles southeast offs the Louisiana coastline. Eleven men working on the oil rig platform were killed and 17 others were injured. People livelihood and the environment were devastated by this event.…

    • 1236 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Deepwater Case Study

    • 708 Words
    • 3 Pages

    On April 20, 2010 a catastrophic explosion on the Deepwater Horizon off shore drilling platform caused the largest single release to the environment due to oil drilling. This explosion killed 11 workers and injured 17. This oil spill is very controversial because it can be questioned if this spill could have been prevented and what exactly went wrong. There is much debate on who is to blame, what could have been done to prevent it and who is going to pay for all the damage. Many are not happy with the settlement BP is signing that will keep them from further criminal prosecution if they agree to pay the settlement amount. Paying retribution is fine, but what about the future damaging effects that we have no way of even knowing about now. Who will take care of that? These are some of the basic questions people are asking about this case and my responses.…

    • 708 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Bp Oil Spill Globalization

    • 1062 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The 20th of April 2010 will be marked as the worst day in British Petroleum PLC’s history, the day that there was an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig whilst drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 people and causing devastation to all the surrounding areas. The events of this day affected the global markets and relationships between countries substantially.…

    • 1062 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Bp Oil Spill

    • 2159 Words
    • 9 Pages

    An important component of crisis management is response. Response can include several actions such as communication with stakeholders, the public and the government. Appropriate and effective communication can minimize the distribution of incomplete and inaccurate information, reduce speculation and prevent or quell rumors. In fact, studies suggest that the message itself can affect the public’s evaluation of the company and perhaps its reputation and brand. The two principal components of crisis response are communication and rectification. (Baron, 2010) One: tell us about it; and two: make it right. Item one sounds like it should be simple, right? Wrong! In April 2010, an oil spill disaster in the Gulf tagged BP as the perfect example of how to make a bad situation worse with poor communication. Following is an explanation of recommended goals during crisis communication along with my analysis of how and why BP failed:…

    • 2159 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The BP oil spill, more famously referred to as the Deepwater Horizon Spill, occurred in 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico and flowed unmitigated for as long as 3 months. The BP oil spill has fared as the largest marine oil spill ever confronted in the history of the petroleum industry. The oil spill on the 20th of April 2010 was primarily the result of a gas release followed by an explosion in the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, in the Gulf of Mexico, established on the Mocando exploration well designed for BP. The explosion took the lives of 11 individual’s and rendered 17 severely injured. Furthermore, it led to devastating impacts on the environment, polluting both, the land and the seas. The Deepwater Horizon was essentially a massive floating deep water drilling rig, which could operate in depth of as much as 10,000 feet under water. The drilling rig was owned by Transocean. At the time of the explosion, the drilling rig was operating at 5100 feet in depth of water, drilling an exploratory well around 35,050 feet deep, in the Mocando Prospect, located at the Gulf of Mexico.…

    • 1115 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The two corporations colliding that day, BP and Transocean, underestimated the calamity occurring right before them. Twenty anomalies occurring simultaneously did not cause significant alarm to make a drastic and immediate decision to prevent the explosion. The team minimized the probability that the rig would explode.…

    • 277 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays