...1. Introduction This report will identify a crisis facing BP company, the Gulf of Mexico spill, and investigate how the organization response to the society. In this report, it will use Legitimacy theory to explain BP’s response to this event. Legitimacy theory can be treated as a explanation for voluntary corporate disclosures in annual report. As (Dowling&Pfeffer, 1975) says a corporation must act in congruence with norms and society value. First of all, Legitimacy theory is based on the concept of substantive rationality and replies upon the notion of a social contract. This theory asserts that organizations seek to ensure that they operate within the bounds and norms of their respective societies (Ramon Mullerat, 2010) .It aims to conform to norms and value of society. As a company, it always use annual report to legitimize the ongoing operation, however, in common situations, it often discloses good news, but its actual behaviors decline which is called legitimacy gap. 2. The case 2.1 Context In April 20, 2010, a semi-submersible drilling platform belongs to BP occurred explosion in American Mexico gulf. It caused 11people die and 17 people injured after 36 hours (CBC News, 2010). BP Company announced that it wills to response for this event. The Gulf of Mexico spill has become the worst environmental crisis in America. Except the direct cost, it will also attack people’s life, such as air and water safe. At the same time, it is a huge disaster for seaside...
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...A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE BP OIL SPILL RESPONSE AND PREPAREDNESS PLAN FOR THE DEEP HORIZON – WHY DID IT FAIL? Toni Josina Elfrieda Beukes* May 2012† ABSTRACT: Based on events that unfolded in the U.S. in the weeks and subsequently months of the Macondo well blow-out, it is clear that neither industry nor government was equipped to deal with a spill the scale and complexity of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. As one of its key recommendations to President Obama for addressing the causes and consequences of the spill, the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in its final report, stated the need for “strengthening oil spill response, planning and capacity”. Industry best practice dictates that quickness and accuracy are key requirements for effective oil spill response and preparedness planning (OSRPP); yet it took nearly three months to seal the Macondo well. This paper is accordingly concerned with the reasons for the apparent failure of the BP oil spill response plan. This failure will be considered in light of current international environmental regulations on OSRPP and applicable United States legislation, whilst assessing the BP oil spill response plan’s compliance therewith. The study will also consider some theory in the development of OSRPP by looking specifically at risk assessment tools and applying key criteria to the BP oil spill response plan to determine its adequacy and appropriateness for its operations in the GOM. What...
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...BP Oil Spill Introduction: On the evening of April 22nd, 2010, a gas released and subsequent explosion occurred on the deck of Transocean Deepwater oil rig that was on the Gulf of Mexico. Eleven were killed and many were injured during the thirty-six hours it burned while hydrocarbons leaked into the Gulf of Mexico before it was closed off and sealed. The oil slick was produced by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill that covered almost 29,000 square miles. The disaster was quickly declared the largest oil spill in United States history. Not only was the ocean surface glazed with oil sheen, the impact on the marine ecosystem below the surface and onshore was devastating. Many concerns were raised about the environmental impact of chemicals known as dispersants that were used to dissipate the oil slick. Governmental agencies and others worked together to control the spill and minimize the impact that it would have on the environment and human health by containing it and cleaning up whatever came ashore. “Oil spills can affect water in a variety of ways it spreads out into a very thin layer across the surface which is called slick and it expands till it’s extremely thin”.(Bourne, 2010, p.2) The Deepwater Horizon oil spill wasn’t an unavoidable accident it was the results from negligence and avarice. The oil spill sparked heated debates regarding a variety of issues; the country’s dependence on fossil fuels, government regulations and which organization was more at fault. Key...
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...Name Public Relations PR Response Analysis to BP Oil Spill Instructor May 1, 2015 PR Response Analysis to BP Oil Spill This is an analysis of BP’s PR responses to several public audiences and industries after the BP Oil Spill disaster that occurred in the Gulf of Mexico. This disaster is also known as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The spill began on April 20th, 2010 on the BP-owned Transocean operated Macondo Prospect. The catastrophe stemmed from a gas release and ensuing explosion on the oil rig. According to BP’s website, “We acted to take responsibility for the clean-up, working under the direction of the federal government to respond swiftly to compensate people affected by the impact of the accident, to look after the health, safety and welfare of the large number of residents and people who helped respond to the spill, and to support the economic recovery of the Gulf Coast’s tourism and seafood industries impacted by the spill. We have conducted studies with federal and state natural resource trustees to identify and define the injury to natural resources in the Gulf of Mexico”. BP allowed their use of social media to expose their corporation’s lack of professionalism and customer service. By addressing important topics from this disaster through social media channels they compromised their integrity immediately. It also was perceived as hiding behind a forum that was less than ideal to use for this particular situation. Society and certain industries can instantly...
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...Operations Management and Controlling Organizational Performance On April 20, 2010 the BP Macondo Well/Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded spilling oil in the Gulf of Mexico. This explosion left eleven crew members dead and others injured. Millions of barrels of oil were released into the Gulf. People in the fishing industry were put out of work. Countless marine animals were killed. The beaches and marshlands in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida were polluted. This oil spill has been recorded as one of the largest and worst in history. Due to the magnitude of this spill, the first major test of the national containment and response equipment was implemented by the Oil Pollution Act of 1990. After the enactment of OPA it was clearly spelled out that the Federal officials (Coast Guards) were responsible for offshore incidents. Therefore, the Coast Guard responded to the spill the first day and remained on site with BP until the explosion was under control. The Coast Guard supervised and directed the capping of the well on July 15, 2010 and completed it on September 19, 2010. The Oil Pollution Act of 1990 is a law that caps on liability for oil spills caused by tankers and drilling vessels in the United States' territorial waters. It was designed to improve the nation’s ability to prevent and respond to oil spills. “OPA 0f 1990 was enacted largely because of the Exxon Valdez spill in March 1989”. (Griggs, 2011) Its general provisions consist of the following: ...
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...company in the world because of its international markets activities is considered as a multinational Oil company Headquartered in London and as a largest producer of oil and gas in the North of America. (BP) The company has huge market impact, which gives it notable trading performance in the global energy industry. (BP). Their structure is set up through two main operating segments, Upstream and Downstream, in which BP finds, develops and produces vital sources of energy, turning them into products that we need. BP also buys and sells at each stage of the hydrocarbon value chain which is a series of processes to transform hydrocarbons from a basic natural resource into the complex fuels and materials which our modern world depends on. They also have stake in renewable energy that include biofuels and wind. The products and services they provide customers with vary form fuel for transportation, energy for heat and light, all way to lubricants to keep engines running, and the petrochemicals products used to make everyday items as different as paints, clothes and packaging (BP). The first of two key factors that can and have affected the success of BP is one we all probably have heard of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. According National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling report it was the largest offshore oil spill in US history. This...
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...BP Deep-water Horizon Oil Spill Public Relations BP Deep-water Horizon Oil Spill: Executive Summary The Deepwater Horizon oil spill or the BP oil spill was a disaster in the Gulf of Mexico that took place in the Macondo Prospect. Macondo Prospect was a BP operated project, and one of the oil spill disasters that has been considered to be one of the most destructive accidents on marine environment. In fact, it has been considered the most expensive and life threatening accident in the petroleum industry. The disaster was an explosion in a deep-sea oil drilling facility owned by BP Company, in which the resultant explosion caused the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon oilrig, killing 11 people in the incident. The disaster let free a gush of oil from under the seabed, flowing for an estimated three months. The result of the BP oil disaster was indeed catastrophic not just too marine life, but also to all other sectors of the economy that depended either directly or indirectly on marine environment (Alexander, 2010). In what remained to be a disaster, the wellhead had continued to gush oil for up to 87 days before a team finally succeeded in July 2010. By this time, it was estimated that the oil spill had discharged approximately 4.9 million barrels, a quantity estimated to be 780,000 cubic meters. By this time, marine life had been put in jeopardy while a lot others had died, or been seriously affected. Apart from marine and wildlife habitats...
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...Agency, 2012). The Gulf connects to the Atlantic Ocean through a current from the Yucatan Straight, circulating around the Gulf and exiting through the Florida Straight, forming the Gulf Stream (The Environmental Protection Agency, 2012). With over 600,000 square miles of area and 16,000 miles of shoreline, the Gulf of Mexico supports a host of economic activities. Tourism, shipping, agriculture, fishing, fisheries, oyster production, shrimp production, oil and gas production, and more from the Gulf produce annual economic activities in excess of $234 billion (Hargreaves, 2010). Oil and gas industry creates $124 billion annually, the largest chunk of Gulf economic activities (Hargreaves, 2010). This industry, while creating the largest economic impact in the area, is also responsible for creating its largest ecological disaster. On April 20, 2010, The BP and Transocean operated oilrig Deepwater Horizon had recently suspended drilling operations more that 50 miles southeast of Venice, Louisiana’s coast (Rigzone). BP had filed a permit to temporarily abandon the well and move the rig to a new location. At 10 p.m. an explosion ripped through the rig killing 11 workers (Rigzone). A bubble of methane gas escaped the well and traveled up the well bore, expanding as it climbed. The combustible bubble of gas burst through the barriers designed to contain it, bypassing the blowout preventer, and making it to the rig where the friction from the bubble could create a static charge...
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...Crisis Panel BP Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill British Petroleum is a multinational company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. BP dedicates to find, extract, transport, and commercialize oil and gas. BP is the fourth largest global energy company in the world and it is the largest producer of oil and gas in the United States with headquarters in Houston Texas. Since BP started operating in United States has been involved in many environmental and safety scandals. The most recent incident is the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico near the Louisiana coast. It is the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry and it has created a huge damage in the environment. In the morning of April 20, 2010 the Deepwater Horizon exploded; there were 126 members on the platform when fire engulfed the platform, although most of the workers escaped the rig by lifeboat and were subsequently evacuated by boat or airlifted by helicopter for medical treatment; however, eleven workers were never found despite a three-day Coast Guard search operation, and are presumed to have died in the explosion. The fire on the platform lasted for 36 hours and ended by the Deepwater Horizon sank. Two days later after the explosion a large oil slick was discovered at the former side of the platform, it was confirmed that a damaged wellhead was leaking. BP estimated the worst case flow at 162,000 barrels per day. Initial estimates by Coast Guard and BP officials, based...
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...StateCorporate Environmental Crime Analysis of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Elizabeth A. Bradshaw Western Michigan University, brads2ea@cmich.edu Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.wmich.edu/dissertations Recommended Citation Bradshaw, Elizabeth A., "Deepwater, Deep Ties, Deep Trouble: A State-Corporate Environmental Crime Analysis of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill" (2012). Dissertations. Paper 53. This Dissertation-Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate College at ScholarWorks at WMU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at WMU. For more information, please contact maira.bundza@wmich.edu. DEEPWATER, DEEP TIES, DEEP TROUBLE: A STATE-CORPORATE ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME ANALYSIS OF THE 2010 GULF OF MEXICO OIL SPILL by Elizabeth A. Bradshaw A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of The Graduate College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Sociology Advisor: Ronald C. Kramer, Ph.D. Western Michigan University Kalamazoo, Michigan August 2012 THE GRADUATE COLLEGE WESTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY KALAMAZOO, MICHIGAN June 29, 2012 Date WE HEREBY APPROVE THE DISSERTATION SUBMITTED BY Elizabeth A. Bradshaw ENTITLED Deepwater, Deep Ties, Deep Trouble: A State-Corporate Environmental Crime Analysis of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill AS PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF Doctor...
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...High School BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Investigation Subject: Geography Level: High (HL) Name: Stephanie Chinese: 姜智旻 Homeroom: 10-5 Word count: 1088 Student number: 4192 Supervisor: Craig Hamilton   On 20th of August 2010, the oil drilling rig Deepwater Horizon, operating in the Gulf of Mexico exploded then sunk resulting to 11 deaths. During the 87 days, about 4.9 billion barrels of oil had already spread. An estimation of 42,000 gallon of oil is oozing from underwater. From then 75,000km2 was not allowed for fishing.  Apparently, the blowout preventer device had bad managements and operations, and failed. Investigators said, “The problems with this blowout preventer were worse than we understood.†(Seth, 2014) In addition, investigators have stated that the cause of this explosion was because of the screw ups with cement, drilling mud, fluid pressure, mismanaged tests, and poor decisions. Therefore, this device should be improved so it doesn’t happen again. They have discovered that it has been the device operator’s fault in view of the fact that the blowout preventer hasn’t been tested accurately, there were problems in the wiring and dead batteries. In order to clean the oil excess, they used powerful chemicals, which they don’t know the effects of on the environment. It was from 1.6km down to the bottom. After this cause, the British Petroleum (BP) went into investigation, negotiating with more than 50 expertise from within BP and industry...
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...No. 55 High School BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Investigation Subject: Geography Level: High (HL) Name: Stephanie Chinese: 姜智旻 Homeroom: 10-5 Word count: 1088 Student number: 4192 Supervisor: Craig Hamilton On 20th of August 2010, the oil drilling rig Deepwater Horizon, operating in the Gulf of Mexico exploded then sunk resulting to 11 deaths. During the 87 days, about 4.9 billion barrels of oil had already spread. An estimation of 42,000 gallon of oil is oozing from underwater. From then 75,000km2 was not allowed for fishing. Apparently, the blowout preventer device had bad managements and operations, and failed. Investigators said, “The problems with this blowout preventer were worse than we understood.” (Seth, 2014) In addition, investigators have stated that the cause of this explosion was because of the screw ups with cement, drilling mud, fluid pressure, mismanaged tests, and poor decisions. Therefore, this device should be improved so it doesn’t happen again. They have discovered that it has been the device operator’s fault in view of the fact that the blowout preventer hasn’t been tested accurately, there were problems in the wiring and dead batteries. In order to clean the oil excess, they used powerful chemicals, which they don’t know the effects of on the environment. It was from 1.6km down to the bottom. After this cause, the British Petroleum (BP) went into investigation, negotiating with more than 50 expertise from within BP and industry. Not only...
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...BP & Deepwater Horizon C. Nelson BP & Deepwater Horizon Every business, in some way, is affected by public and private criticism. One industry that is never too far away from criticism is the oil and gas industry. Over the course of this essay, we will explore BP, its stakeholders, some of their criticisms, and BP’s response to those criticisms. BP, formerly British Petroleum, is the fourth largest oil and gas companies in the world in terms of revenue and sixth based on production. (Statista, 2015) (Forbes, 2015) Although BP doesn’t have an official mission statement, the company does have a few statements entitled “Our Values”, “Clear Priorities”, and “Our strategy and sustainability”. BP (2015) states, “We have five values that express our shared understanding of what we believe, how we aim to behave and what we aspire to be as an organization.” Those five values include safety, respect, excellence, courage, and one team. “Clear Priorities” (2015) details three main topics that top the company’s interests including: safe, reliable and compliant operations; disciplined financial choices; and competitive project execution. Thirdly, BP has a commitment to sustainability and states (2015), “We believe that the best way for BP to achieve sustainable success is by acting in the long-term interests of our shareholders, our partners and society.” The three pillars augment the lack of a mission statement and express BP’s commitments and responsibilities....
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...Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill and BP Environmental Clean-Up Deb Schoenwether MGMT 312 Creativity & Innovation December 8, 2010 Submitted By: Joe Panayiotou Angela Merryfield Sonya Meggs Lisa Parker Kristi Mathews Introduction: (Lisa Parker) On April 20, 2010, an explosion occurred on an offshore drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 28 people. It was later found that the wellhead was damaged and was leaking oil from the British Petroleum (BP) Oil Refinery into the Gulf of Mexico. In a report on the incident issued by BP on September 8, the company admitted that there were weaknesses in the cement design and testing. It is the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry. BP is the third largest energy company and the fourth largest company in the world. BP is headquartered in London, United Kingdom. Its largest division is BP America, which is the biggest producer of oil and gas in the United States and is headquartered in Houston, Texas. (Wikipedia, 2010) This significant oil spill poses a serious threat to people, industries, businesses, wildlife and beaches along the coastal areas of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. The spill continues to cause extensive damage to marine and wildlife habitats as well as the Gulf's fishing and tourism industries. BP states that they will recruit a series of teams to clean-up the shorelines and workers will receive safety training before clean-up takes place...
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...BP Oil Spill Public Relations Response Introduction 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 incident and told the company for all cleanup measure which result in oil spill. BP accepted the responsibility and cleanup costs. According to numerous reports, abnormal amounts of high-pressure methane gas accumulated inside the rig's marine risers, a complex system of tubing that runs between an underwater oil sources. The methane gas traveled through the risers and expanded rapidly, igniting the oil within. The exact cause of the explosion and fire are still under investigation, but according to interviews conducted during BP's internal investigation, several workers aboard the rig reported that a bubble of methane gas had in fact escaped from the well and shot up the drill column, expanding as it burst through several seals and barriers before...
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