1. What aspects of BP’s ethical culture could have contributed to the Gulf Coast oil spill disaster?

BP’s ethical culture did contribute to the Gulf Coast oil spill disaster which occurred on April 20th, 2010 resulting from an explosion which killed eleven (11) employees. This disaster created an environmental catastrophe as millions of gallons of crude oil were sent into the Gulf of Mexico, wreaking havoc on the livelihoods of fishermen and others who depended on the Gulf for income. The aspects of BP’s ethical culture that contributed to the Gulf Coast oil spill are:
BP did not have in place adequate safety measures.
The rig did not have a remote control cut off switch. A BP official falsely informed Fox News after the incident that BP had successfully activated part of a failed blowout preventer, which was slowing the oil flow. This announcement turned out to be false as BP’s underwater robot did in fact trigger a device, but the device did not stop the flow of oil. While the remote controlled cut out switch was not required by law as long as the Rig had a backup control system, BP could have ensured that some sort of emergency shut off system was in place.
BP cut corners to save time and money while not providing sufficient oversight. Seventy five percent of incidents that caused Federal investigations into safety on deep sea drilling rigs in the Gulf of Mexico were on Transocean drilling rigs and BP were their biggest client. Therefore it was BP’s responsibility to ensure that appropriate precautions were taken to prevent a disaster.
BP was accused of willful negligence.
A technician on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig claimed that Bp had knowledge that the rig’s oil preventer was leaking weeks before the explosion, but did not halt production. If true this statement contradicts that engineers detected no leaks before the explosion occurred.
BP