...Ethics Case Halliburton Plc. & Washington Inc.: The Power of Politics in Corporate Business Success As a general rule, correcting market failures is best left to the government. Businesses cannot be trusted to get it right, partly because they lack the wherewithal to frame intelligent policy in these areas.[i] Free-market economist Adam Smith (1723-1790) states that if self-interested people are left alone to seek their own economic advantage, the result, unintended by any one of them, will be greater advantage for all. He maintains that government interference is not necessary to protect the general welfare.[ii] MBA 8111 Business, Government, and Society Introduction Governments have become the black box for corporate business success around the world. This paper will discuss the close relationship between business and government, using Halliburton as main examples throughout the case. Halliburton has often been perceived negatively by the public and has become a favorite target by Democrats for critics about conflicts of interest, undue corporate influence, hidden motives, accounting fraud, bribery, bilking the government, tax evasion, and trading with rogue nations.[iii] Its name has become synonymous with political cronyism.[iv] The current U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney, who previously held the CEO of Halliburton from 1995 to 2000, is criticized to facilitate the government contracts to be available to the company even though he...
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...resources. OFS companies are involved in all stages of production, from upstream through downstream. The size of these service companies was relatively small until the 1980’s, when the major oil and gas companies outsourced a variety of processes to service companies. OFS companies continued to grow in size and importance with the innovation of new technologies and abilities such as directional drilling and improved 3D seismic imaging. Today, OFS companies play a key part in what is commonly referred to as the “shale revolution” in North America. The industry’s success is dependent on several factors including oil/gas prices, economic stability, and innovation of new technologies. This sector is comprised of four giants that include Schlumberger, Weatherford, Halliburton, and Baker Hughes. These companies are involved in a broad range of services that require intensive capital and R&D. Independent firms typically perform smaller, specialized services with expertise in the process involved. The services sector is expected to grow substantially over the next five to ten years, as the overall industry will rely more heavily on OFS company’s capabilities to extract more remote reservoirs. Products & Services: The Big 4 service companies are engaged in a wide range of products and services. Despite each company’s specialty in certain...
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...Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed a suite of commonsense requirements that together will help combat climate change, reduce air pollution that harms public health, and provide greater certainty about Clean Air Act permitting requirements for the oil and natural gas industry. The proposals are part of the agency’s broad-based strategy under the President’s Climate Action Plan to reduce emissions of the potent greenhouse gas methane and smog-forming volatile organic compounds from this rapidly growing industry. The proposal will complement rules the agency issued in 2012 to reduce pollution from the oil and natural gas industry while helping ensure that development of these energy resources is safe and responsible. The World Health Organization defines air pollution as “the presence of material in the air in such concentration which are harmful to man and his environment.” In fact air pollution is the occurrence or addition of foreign particles, gases, and other pollutants into the air which have an adverse effect on human beings, animals, and vegetation. The various causes of air pollution are: combustion of natural gas, coal and wood in industries, automobiles, aircraft, railways, thermal plants, agricultural burning, kitchens, metallurgical processing (mineral dust, fumes containing fluorides, sulphides and metallic pollutants like lead, chromium, nickel, beryllium, arsenic vanadium, cadmium, zinc, mercury), processing industries like cotton textiles...
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...1. ARTICLES This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on December 14 - 20, 2015 [pic] A construction industry executive recently rented a high-end condominium for about 30% less than the going rate a year ago. Why was the condominium so cheap? The property agent replied that the previous tenant — a high-ranking oil and gas (O&G) official — had lost his job. “It’s quite common now for O&G expatriates to lose their jobs, so the property market has also been impacted,” the agent said. According to a senior executive in the once-booming oil and gas sector, as many as 7,000 to 8,000 executives have lost their jobs after the second round of industry-wide retrenchments in the country. He has been told by colleagues that Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas), Scomi Group Bhd and UMW Oil & Gas Corp Bhd have put a freeze on hiring and the list of companies doing the same is getting longer. “Worse still, MMHE [Malaysia Marine and Heavy Engineering Holdings Bhd] is looking to discontinue the services of as many as 800 contractual workers, and Petronas is also mulling over a similar move,” he says. Such moves are often denied and never publicised. An MMHE official tells The Edge that the company only makes such announcements internally, but adds that she has not heard of recent staff-reduction exercises. “MMHE, like most businesses, is operating in a very competitive industry and under tough economic conditions. Regrettably, this often has an unavoidable impact on staff,” an MMHE...
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...Western Michigan University ScholarWorks at WMU Dissertations Graduate College 8-1-2012 Deepwater, Deep Ties, Deep Trouble: A 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...
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...The Impact of multinational companies A case study of the energy industry in Saudi Arabia Abstract Contents 1. Introduction 4 1.1. Rationale of the Research 6 1.2. Aims & Objectives of the Research 7 1.3. Key Research Questions 7 2. Literature Review 9 3. Research Methodology 13 4. Key Findings & Discussion 13 5. Conclusion 16 6. References 16 7. Appendices 16 1. Introduction In this era of globalization, there has been a fundamental change in the way international business is being done. Due to the ease of communication and advances in the sophisticated communication systems more and more companies are becoming global and expanding their operations and creating production facilities away from their home countries. This trend has given rise to today’s Multinational Corporations (MNCs) whose role in the international scene is increasing rapidly. With increased international development and cooperation, the MNCs have been able to create such a network that their budgets, organizational structure and influence on the world trade stage rivals many nations [ (UN Conference Proceedings, 2006) ]. With their immense economic power and strong political connections and the fact that globalization is seen as a “Business driving phenomenon”, MNCs are in a strong position to influence the economies of the countries...
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...BP Oil Spill | Case Study Analysis | | Disclaimer: To start things off, I would like to mention that the BP Oil Spill is an extremely complicated case and its impact could be felt in every corner of the world. Therefore, my case study is only the tip of the iceberg and should not be used to judge the entire controversy. In addition, all statistics and information have been obtained from other sources. Enjoy! | | By: Haikang Zhu | For: Professor Bill WoofClass: Mgmt 1040 DDate: December 9th, 2010 | | BP (British Petroleum) is a global oil and gas company based in London, England. To date, it is the third largest energy company and the fourth largest company in the world in terms of revenues. Bp has operations in over 80 countries, produces around 3.8 million barrels of oil per day and has approximately 22,400 service stations worldwide. One major controversy that has been following every single oil and gas companies is the sustainability of offshore drillings and their impacts on the environment and the potential problems that might occur. Unfortunately for BP, On April 20th 2010, the dreaded problem occurred. The drilling rig known as the Deepwater Horizon Rig exploded, immediately killing 11 men and injuring 17 others. The incident took place in the Gulf of Mexico and is the worst environment disaster in the history after the Exxon Valdez accident in Alaska. The oil spill stemmed from a sea-floor sea gusher and was the result of the explosion of the drilling...
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...BP Leadership Group Four MGMT 620 – High Performance Leadership 2/5/2012 Chadron State College Abstract The purpose of this analysis is to focus on British Petroleum (BP) leadership as it relates to the 2010 Gulf oil spill and cleanup. One would think that a large corporation like BP would be penalized greatly from an oil spill of the magnitude. Once the announcement was made of the spill, BP leadership was quick to shirk responsibility and circumvent its safety policies and practices which led to one of the greatest man-made ecological disasters the world has ever known. Prior to the spill, the leadership values and culture at BP are obvious. Their focus was on reducing costs and meeting tight time-lines at the expense of safety. The former BP CEO resigned voluntarily. What leadership values or traits changed as a result of the disaster at BP? Did the new CEO set forth a path of leadership change or rather simply pacify the media? The Gulf oil spill forced a rapid increase in fuel prices in the country. In one quarter during 2010, BP earned enough profit to cover the expenses associated with the spill, including the associated litigation. One astonishing fact is that, upon exiting, the (supposedly) punished CEO was given a settlement of over 100 million dollars from BP. What leadership changes have occurred as a result of this tragedy? Not much, why? Limited financial consequences for BP have brought about very little change in leadership...
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...Reliance About the Company: 1991, Reliance industries set up a new subsidiary, Reliance Refineries Private Ltd. The subsidiary later changed its name to Reliance Petroleum Limited, and in 1993 launched a public offering, which at that time was India's largest ever IPO. Reliance continued to pioneer financing channels in India. In 1993, for example, the company became the first Indian company to raise capital on the foreign market, through a Global Depositary Receipt(GDR) issue in Luxembtheirg. The company completed a second successful GDR issue in 1994. The company used the new capital in part to expand its petrochemicals wing, building the world's largest multi-feed cracker at the Hazira site. The company also added production plants for mono ethylene glycol, polyethylene, and purified terephthalic acid. The new units launched production in 1998.Reliance's opportunity for entry into petroleum refining came in 1997, when the Indian oil industry reached a state of near collapse. Unable to fund further exploration operations, and lacking the capital to expand its existing production, the government was forced to liberalize the sector. In that year, Reliance announced a plan to build one of the world's largest and most modern petroleum refining complexes in Jamnagar, Gujarat, at a cost of some $6 billion. The government agreed to the plan, and granted the company the right to import petroleum directly, rather than going through Indian Oil, which helped Reliance greatly drive...
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...The Socially Responsible Oil Company: An Examination of Corporate Ethics by Peter Fischer A Paper Submitted in Fulfillment of the USD School of Law Writing Requirement Energy Law Professor Burleson Spring, 2009 Table of Contents Introduction 2 Background 3 The Need for CSR at Home and Abroad 7 Case Study Analyses: Four Critical Events in the Oil Industry and their Effect on CSR Case Study #1: The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill 9 Case Study #2: Occidental and the Piper Alpha Disaster 12 Case Study #3: A Two-Part Analysis of Shell in the Mid-1990s a) Shell’s Human Rights Violations in Nigeria 16 b) Shell’s Response—Outsource CSR 21 Case Study #4: BP’s Major Advances in CSR 24 Ethics and the Problem of the Public Relations Quick Fix 27 Analyzing the Current Corporate Culture: Failure to Meet the Triple Bottom Line 32 Conclusion 38 Works Cited…………………………………………………………………...…………41 Introduction Over the past twenty years an irrefutable shift in the oil industry has occurred—the shift to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).[1] The purpose of this paper is to analyze the motivation behind this shift and determine if these CSR practices are genuine. In other words, does the adoption of CSR denote a tangible change in the way oil companies operate, or is it merely an elaborate public relations exercise? To answer...
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...British Petroleum (BP) Case Study Executive Summary This case study report examined a public relation management problem that British Petroleum (BP) faced since the oil spill accident happened in April, 2010. In addition, this thesis recommended possible solutions and implementation plans for BP to deal with the public crisis. 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 plummeted to the lowest point since 1996. The communities around the Gulf of Mexico blamed BP for their carelessness and appealed for more actions to recover their low income life. BP has already established $20 billion fund to respond the situation in the Gulf of Mexico. However, according to recent research, the amount of the money is not enough to straighten out the crisis. In order to examine the case, we performed PEST and SWOT analysis methods. We focused on evaluating economic and socio-cultural factors that were the major elements had affects on BP’s public image. At the same time, we analyzed and key strengths and opportunities that essential for BP to revitalize its brand image. Our analysis revealed two crucial factors. First, BP’s own...
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...be no more than 10 minutes. Please use visuals and a power point for your presentation. The Issue The Deepwater Horizon oil spill was an oil spill that began in April 20, 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico on the BP-operated Macondo Prospect, considered the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry. It claimed 11 lives when the oil rig exploded and spilled 4.9 million barrels or 210 million US gal of oil for 87 days. It was finally capped on September 19, 2010. Numerous investigations explored the causes of the explosion and record-setting spill. Notably, the U.S. government's September 2011 report pointed to defective cement on the well, faulting mostly BP, but also rig operator Transocean and contractor Halliburton. Earlier in 2011, a White House commission likewise blamed BP and its partners for a series of cost-cutting decisions and an insufficient safety system, but also concluded that the spill resulted from "systemic" root causes and "absent significant reform in both industry practices and government policies, might well recur". In November 2012, BP and the United States Department of Justice settled federal criminal charges with BP pleading guilty to 11 counts of manslaughter, two misdemeanors, and a felony count of lying to Congress. BP also agreed to four years of government monitoring of its safety practices and ethics, and the Environmental Protection Agency announced that BP would be temporarily banned from new contracts with the US...
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...Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill On April 20, 2010, an event occurred in the Gulf of Mexico that changed the life of many of the citizens living near and around the area. The event would be known as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which was triggered by an explosion on a Deepwater Horizon oil rig resulting “in the deaths of 11 workers and injuries to another 17 workers” (NIOSH, 2011). Millions of barrels of oil were believed to have leaked into the Gulf, damaging resources, causing health issues, and injuring wildlife. The primary law, in the U.S., for companies conducting deepwater drilling is outlined in the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA). The OPA “establishes a framework that addresses the liability of responsible parties in connection with the discharge of oil into the navigable waters of the United States, adjoining shorelines, or the exclusive economic zone” (Nichols, 2010). The OPA limits certain liabilities of the responsible party when an incident occurs in the previous mentioned areas. The OPA is limited based on the type of vessel or facility involved in the incident and the quantity of oil displaced by a discharge. Part of the OPA includes the claims for certain damages and removal costs. Claims for an incident must be presented directly to the responsible party, where the responsible party must pay appropriate claim within 90 days. If the responsible party fails to pay the claim during this timeframe, then the claimant can submit a claim...
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...the free encyclopedia This is the latest accepted revision, accepted on 2 October 2010.Jump to: navigation, search This article is about the energy corporation. For other uses, see BP (disambiguation). For information on the oil spill from the Deepwater Horizon rig, see Deepwater Horizon oil spill. BP p.l.c. Type Public limited company (LSE: BP, NYSE: BP) Industry Oil and natural gas, alternative fuels Founded 1909 (as the Anglo-Persian Oil Company) 1954 (as the British Petroleum Company) 1998 (merger of British Petroleum and Amoco) Headquarters London, United Kingdom Area served Worldwide Key people Carl-Henric Svanberg (Chairman) Tony Hayward (CEO) Bob Dudley (Director, CEO (appointed)) Byron Grote (CFO)[1] Products BP petroleum and derived products BP service stations Air BP Aviation Fuels Castrol motor oil ARCO gas stations am/pm convenience stores Aral service stations solar panels Revenue US $246.1 billion (2009)[2] Operating income US $26.43 billion (2009)[2] Net income US $16.58 billion (2009)[2] Total assets US $236.0 billion (2009) Total equity US $101.6 billion (2009) Employees 80,300 (Dec 2009)[3] Website BP.com A 1922 BP advertisement.BP p.l.c.[4][5] (LSE: BP, NYSE: BP) is a global oil and gas company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the third largest energy company and the fourth largest company in the world measured by revenues and is one of the six oil and gas "supermajors".[6][7] It has operations...
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...INTERNATIONAL OIL COMPANIES BY AMY MYERS JAFFE WALLACE S. WILSON FELLOW IN ENERGY STUDIES JAMES A. BAKER III INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY RONALD SOLIGO, PH.D. PROFESSOR OF ECONOMICS, RICE UNIVERSITY RICE SCHOLAR, JAMES A. BAKER III INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY PREPARED IN CONJUNCTION WITH AN ENERGY STUDY SPONSORED BY JAPAN PETROLEUM ENERGY CENTER AND THE JAMES A. BAKER III INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY NOVEMBER 2007 International Oil Companies THIS PAPER WAS WRITTEN BY A RESEARCHER (OR RESEARCHERS) WHO PARTICIPATED IN THE JOINT BAKER INSTITUTE/JAPAN PETROLEUM ENERGY CENTER POLICY REPORT, THE CHANGING ROLE OF NATIONAL OIL COMPANIES IN INTERNATIONAL ENERGY MARKETS. WHEREVER FEASIBLE, THIS PAPER WAS REVIEWED BY OUTSIDE EXPERTS BEFORE RELEASE. HOWEVER, THE RESEARCH AND THE VIEWS EXPRESSED WITHIN THIS PAPER ARE THOSE OF THE INDIVIDUAL RESEARCHER(S) AND DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENT THE VIEWS OF THE JAMES A. BAKER III INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY NOR THOSE OF THE JAPAN PETROLEUM ENERGY CENTER. © 2007 BY THE JAMES A. BAKER III INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY OF RICE UNIVERSITY THIS MATERIAL MAY BE QUOTED OR REPRODUCED WITHOUT PRIOR PERMISSION, PROVIDED APPROPRIATE CREDIT IS GIVEN TO THE AUTHOR AND THE JAMES A. BAKER III INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY. 2 International Oil Companies ABOUT THE POLICY REPORT THE CHANGING ROLE OF NATIONAL OIL COMPANIES IN INTERNATIONAL ENERGY MARKETS Of world proven oil reserves of 1,148 billion barrels, approximately...
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