BP Vs. Enron - An ethical Approach
There are several different ways that unethical practices can be carried out. I will be highlighting the Enron failure, with the more recent BP Oil Spill, and comparing the practices of each one to one another.
The BP oil spill was caused when methane gas rose into the drilling machine of the oil rig, and caused an explosion, which burned the entire platform (Bureau, 2011). Soon after, large patches of oil appeared on the surface of the water, and soon reached nearby beaches. Even though BP publically estimated about 5,000 barrels of oil spilled each day, the actual figure ended up being over 50,000 barrels a day, according to a government investigation. It was later revealed that BP initially arrived at similar numbers as the government, but downplayed them to make it appear that less damage was being caused (Bureau, 2011).
It was later revealed that one of the reasons for the explosion in the first place, was due to the contractor who built the oil rig wanting to cut costs. As a result of this, substandard concrete and other materials were used in construction of the rig. Additionally, due to cost cutting, many safety precautions were ignored, or severely reduced. Included in these, was the defect that allowed gas to rise up in the well and ignite, causing the explosion in the first place (Bureau, 2011).
One of the main reasons for Enron’s bankruptcy was the use of special purpose entities to keep the debt underreported. They kept profits made by these entities and reported it as revenue. However, they failed to report the debt incurred by the acquisition of these entities (Collins, 2006). The main motivation behind this scandal was to keep stock prices up, and to keep investors putting their money into the company. However, stock prices only rise if net profit is positive, meaning it only rises if actual profits are higher than debts. So even though the company had taken on massive debt, it wasn’t reported, so it seemed that the net profit was much higher than it was in reality (Bryce, 2008).
One of these special purposes entities was called Chewco, which was then used to acquire JEDI, a California state pensions program (Collins, 2006). Since the debt was incurred by this special purpose entity, $383 million went unrecorded in Enron’s reports. Since debt incurred by these special purpose entities could have gone unreported, massive amount of debt went unnoticed by auditors of the time (Bryce, 2008). This pattern continued with many other special entities created by Enron.
Both Enron and BP have had a history of unethical practice, which has come back around to haunt them. They were both due to unethical practices in running each company; Enron for falsifying profits, and BP for cost cutting on safety precautions and regulations. These practices cost each company vast amounts of money, and bankrupted Enron, losing millions of people money, and many, their jobs.

References
Bryce, Robert (December 17, 2008). Pipe Dreams: Greed, Ego, and the Death of Enron.
Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE)/U.S. Coast Guard Joint Investigation Team (14 September 2011)."Deepwater Horizon Joint Investigation Team Releases Final Report" (Press release). U.S. Government. Retrieved 7-25-2013.
Collins, Denis (May 24, 2006). Behaving Badly: Ethical Lessons from Enron