...Gulf Oil Spill Grand Canyon University: Economics for Public Administrators ADM-614 September 10, 2014 Gulf Oil Spill The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) estimated that 4.9 million barrels of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico over a span of 87 days. This catastrophic environmental disaster is known as the Gulf Oil Spill occurred on April 20, 2010 about 50 miles off the coast of Louisiana. An oil drilling rig (Deepwater Horizon) leased by British Petroleum (BP) ignited and exploded spewing 42,000 gallons of oil a day into the Gulf. Two days later the rig sank increasing the spill rate to 210,000 gallons of oil a day. Analysis – Government intervention The U.S. Government named BP as the responsible party in the incident; BP was found negligent in communication and safety practices, the company was held accountable for all cleanup costs resulting from the oil spill. Individuals and businesses that incurred damages as a result of the oil spill were able to submit claims for cleanup cost, property damages, loss of earnings or profits, and for physical injuries or death. The private industry and public sector both sectors failed in many aspects: inspection measures were not properly in place, safety updates and recommendations were not followed and sufficient resources were not provided to enforce safety guidelines and inspection requirements. Randall Holcombe’s book Public Sector affirms that government has a role to play in the market economy;...
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...Situation analysis and strategic recommendations of BP After oil spill disaster in USA Table of content: Introduction 3 Executive Summary 3 Approaches 3 Background of BP 3 BP in USA 3 PESTEL analysis of BP in USA 4 Political Environment 4 Economic Environment 5 Socio-cultural Environment 6 Technological Environment 7 Legal Environment 7 Environmental Analysis 8 Summary 8 SWOT Analysis of BP 8 Strengths 9 Weaknesses 9 Opportunities 10 Threats 11 Summary 11 Strategic Recommendations 11 Porter’s Generic Competitive Strategy 11 Ansoff Model 12 Conclusion: 13 References & Bibliography: 15 Appendix: 17 Introduction: As the global business environment is turbulent and dynamic every business organisation should adopt their strategy with the changing business conditions and conduct external and internal analysis on regular basis to cope up with the changing environment. This paper will analyse the overall situation of BP in USA after the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster. The oil spill creates a new condition for their operation in USA and requires considerable and serious change in the strategic decision making and positioning of the company. Executive Summary: This paper will start with a brief background of BP. A PESTEL analysis will...
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...by BP. The North Sea was saturated with other oil companies and BP saw an opportunity in the Gulf of Mexico (Pour, 2011). The segment that BP did not do well is the environmental factors around the rig that could make it extremely difficult to repair or monitor when troubles occur. The deep water makes it difficult for them to ensure the cement foundation was sealed properly, and pressure tests were misinterpreted by engineers prior to the explosion (Mullins, 2010). The wedding business owners are now facing the threat from these drilling rigs. The oil industry has a long track of catastrophic failures, so a disaster like the BP spill might happen again. They should consider other business opportunities to complement their current business model in case a spill or leakage occurs. 2. How should BP have handled an external environmental analysis and what environmental changes and trends (opportunities and threats) might they have discovered? BP is one of the biggest oil companies and it has a very strong market and geographical presence around the world (MBAskool.com, 2014). As demands for natural gas and oil increase, the company finds itself in a golden position for profits. However, being a global corporation with a long track of bad records, the company is...
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...possesses 22,400 service stations over the world. However, the oil disaster called as BP oil spill or the deep water horizon oil spill was occurred on April 20th, 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico recording the greatest oil spill compared to other oil spill accidents in our history. The Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion caused deaths of 11 workers, 17 workers injured as well as a tremendous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. In fact, this case has been described as a complex accident including a variety of issues ranging from environmental to economic, politics and even ethical issues. The goal of our research is to find any ethical issues since this disaster happened is closely related to ethics which is concerned with moral obligation, social responsibility and justice (Carolyn Wiley, 1997) either individual (‘bad apples’) or organizational (‘bad barrels), which should be evaluated to verify this case. Firstly, the ethical issues can largely be divided into three categories, namely (1) technical design which has had some testing flaws before the actual usage and insufficient guidelines against the negative pressure test, (2) human factors including misjudgment, errors and a failure in duty, (3) organizational system such as taking risk procedures to save time and money and refusing the advice of staff and contractors as well as slowness to react in the accident. Thus, the ethical issues in BP oil spill case relevant to the individuals or the organization will be classified in each factor...
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...KENSINGTON COLLEG OF BUSINESS AND UNIVERSITY OF WALES BP Market Analysis and Strategic Marketing Recommendations In the USA after the Gulf of Mexico Oil spill Nahid Mohsen Pour 2/28/2011 Contains: 2962 words Without charts, content, references, tables In this essay, I am performing Macro environmental analysis of BP business in the USA, after the gulf of Mexico oil spill, and also try to give Strategic Marketing recommendations to recover from the so called “Marketing disaster in the USA market” Nahid Mohsen Pour Table of Contents Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 4 Approach ............................................................................................................................................. 4 Importance of Marketing ..................................................................................................................... 4 Part I: Macro Environmental Analysis of BP business in the USA after the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill ............ 5 Political Analysis .............................................................................................................................. 5 Economical Analysis ......................................................................................................................... 5 Social Analysis..........................................................................
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...Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion: Regulatory Requirements and Technical Analysis Student Name University Name Table of Contents 1.0 Introduction 5 2.0 Shipping 5 2.1 Spills risk 6 2.2 Spills response 7 2.3 Spills recovery 8 3.0 Pipeline safety and integrity 9 3.1 Risk analysis 10 3.2 Spill preparedness and response 10 4.0 Greenhouse gas emissions 11 4.1 Implications of pipeline expansion 12 4.2 Alternatives and its effects 13 5.0 Conclusion 13 Abstract There is high rate of increase in the world’s demand for energy to run its various development projects. However, the most popular source of the needed energy is oil and petroleum products. To respond to this dire need for energy, Trans Mountain company under the Kinder Morgan Canada has presented a request for approval of its multi-billion dollar expansion. However, their proposal report for approval has drawn mixed reactions from first nations, municipal governments, British Columbia residents and various environmental organizations. A lot of environmental issues have topped the list of the project’s safety complications. Some of these groups have vowed never to support the expansion project citing various loopholes. Kinder Morgan Canada’s oil spills risk assessment both on pipelines and shipping vessels is elaborate. It has considered every concern of various partied and has tried to adjust to the NEB requirements. The NEB has scheduled public hearing on this project for 2015. As the company...
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...Si Peng Professor Sellmer English 123 6 Aug. 2010 Offshore Drilling: A Bad Idea Crude oil is one of the three kinds of fossil fuel (coal, crude oil, and natural gas) that are widely used by humanity. It plays a very important role in our world, as it is one of our primary energy sources. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the United States is the biggest oil consumption country in the world, which consumes 19.5 million barrels of oil per day (EIA, “Country Energy Profiles: Oil Consumption”). Crude oil can not only be found on the continent, but also in the ocean. The activity that people discover and extract oil from the ocean is called offshore drilling. Offshore drilling has a long history in the United States. The first offshore well was drilled in 1896, in California (“History of Offshore Oil” 163). Oil soon became the primary energy source of the United States by 1910, as the internal combustion engine, which requires gasoline to power, was invented (“History of Offshore Oil” 163). In the next few decades, offshore drilling industry in the U.S. was going up quickly (“History of Offshore Oil” 163-64). Along with the development of the industry, the government regulation came up. To pursue offshore drilling in the U.S. OCS (Outer Continental Shelf) lands, oil companies need to acquire the lease from the U.S. federal government (“History of Offshore Oil” 164). The Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA) passed in 1953 ensured federal government’s...
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...BA3 Short-Term Effects of an Oil Spill on Marsh-Edge Fishes and Decapod Crustaceans Summary 1- The article is about the Barataria Bay estuary in the state of Louisiana. The article talks about the short term effects of an oil spill in the estuary. The article then goes on to explain how out of all the organisms located in the estuary fish were the most mobile and left the area when the spill occurred. Decapods and crustaceans on the other hand are far less mobile and were left behind to endure the spill. The authors then explain how overall the ecosystem recovered relatively fast. The article then dives into how louisiana handles over fifteen percent of all the oil going into the United States. The article goes further and explains that Louisiana is home to twenty six percent of the united states fisheries which is dominated mostly by crustaceans. The authors then explain that since the oil and fisherie industries operate in the same space it damages the organisms that the fisherie thrives off of. In this particular passage the author explains that the harm is done when these organisms either get smothered in the oil or accidentally ingest it. This source is...
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...April 20th, 2010 marks the largest marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry. The catastrophic event, commonly referred to as the British Petroleum (BP) oil spill or Deepwater Horizon oil spill, took place in the Gulf of Mexico and started due to “well integrity failure” on BP’s Deepwater Horizon oilrig. A “blowout preventer,” the device that seals the well in situations such as this, failed to engage. The failure led to hydrocarbons uncontrollably shooting up the well, triggering a chain of explosions. These explosions not only killed 11 BP personnel, but also unleashed over four million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico (Bryant 2011). The leak took three months to stop, despite a variety of attempts, before BP finally capped it off on July 15th, 2010 (Adams and Gabbert 2010). In response to the crisis BP launched a website to present itself and its responses in a positive manner. BP’s “Gulf of Mexico Restoration” website uses these three strategies to try to repair its reputation: BP uses vibrant images of beaches and aquatic habitats to visually demonstrate its progress toward restoring the environment affected by the Deepwater Horizon accident; chronicles its accomplishments of restoring the Gulf of Mexico using sizeable headliners and captions, and provides a timeline of expenditures to display its financial commitment to revamping the damaged region. BP uses stunning pictures of restored beaches and enhanced aquatic habitats to express its commitment...
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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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...Working Paper The BP Oil Spill as a Cultural Anomaly? Institutional Context, Conflict and Change Andrew J. Hoffman Stephen M. Ross School of Business University of Michigan P. Devereaux Jennings University of Alberta Ross School of Business Working Paper Working Paper No. 1151 October 2010 This work cannot be used without the author's permission. This paper can be downloaded without charge from the Social Sciences Research Network Electronic Paper Collection: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1706096 UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN The BP Oil Spill as a Cultural Anomaly? Institutional Context, Conflict and Change Andrew J. Hoffman University of Michigan 701 Tappan Street, R4472 Ann Arbor, MI 48109 ajhoff@umich.edu 734.763.9455 and P. Devereaux Jennings University of Alberta Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2R6 CANADA dj1@ualberta.ca 780.492.3998 Forthcoming in the Journal of Management Inquiry October 2010 The authors would like thank Marvin Washington and one anonymous reviewer from the Journal of Management Inquiry for helpful feedback and encouragement in the writing of this article. 1 ABSTRACT This paper argues that the BP Oil Spill is, potentially, a “cultural anomaly” for institutional changes in environmental management and fossil fuel production. The problem as defined by the spill’s context, the potential solutions provided by the competing logics in that context, and the selection of problem-solution...
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...crude oil, now remembered as one of our nation’s largest oil spills in history. A well control event allowed hydrocarbons to escape from the Macondo Well onto Transocean’s Deepwaster Horizon, resulting in explosions and fire on the rig. The fire, which was fed by hydrocarbons from the well continued to burn for 36 hours until the rig sank to bottom of the ocean. “Hydrocarbons continued to flow from the reservoir through the wellbore and the blowout preventer for 87 days, causing a spill of national significance” (Crisis Watch). The operations were controlled by BP Exploration & Production Inc., in which they held the lease contract as operators of Mississippi Canyon Block 252, which contains the Macondo Well. Deepwater Horizon exploration was to collect crude oil, one of the leading fuels in the world. After the explosion that shocked the nation, BP formed an investigation team that was in charge of gathering the facts surrounding the accident, analyzing available information and to identify possible causes and making recommendations to enable prevention of similar accidents in the future. The BP investigation Team began its work immediately in the aftermath of the accident, since gathering information directly from the explosion site was slightly out of the question immediately due to the horrendous events and lack of testimonies and vital facts, BP investigation team worked independently from other BP spill response activities and organizations collecting data directly...
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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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...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 this question, the paper analyzes the motivation behind the shift to CSR through a case study analysis of four major events in the oil industry and their ensuing effects (or lack thereof) regarding CSR. These events include the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, The Piper Alpha Disaster, Shell’s societal failures in the mid-1990s, and BP’s profitable use of CSR in the late 1990s...
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...Exxon Mobil Corporation Exxon Mobil Corporation - Financial and Strategic Analysis Review Publication Date: 03-Aug-2012 Reference Code: GDGE1203FSA Company Snapshot Key Information Exxon Mobil Corporation, Key Information Web Address www.exxonmobil.com Financial year-end December Number of Employees 82,100 NYSE XOM Source : GlobalData Company Overview Exxon Mobil Corporation (ExxonMobil) is an integrated global oil and gas company. The company's operations include exploration and production of oil and gas; refining, transportation and marketing of oil and natural gas; and manufacture and sale of petroleum products. ExxonMobil also has interests in petrochemicals and electricity generation facilities. The company operates through three reportable business segments, namely, Upstream, Downstream and Chemical. It offers products and services under various brands such as Exxon, Esso and Mobil. ExxonMobil is headquartered in Texas, the US. ExxonMobil is expanding its operations and presence in unconventional gas resource assets. 9.75 4.37 26.59 11.03.00 15.06 0.02 Key Ratios Exxon Mobil Corporation, Key Ratios P/E EV/EBITDA Return on Equity (%) Debt/Equity Operating profit margin (%) Dividend Yield SWOT Analysis Exxon Mobil Corporation, SWOT Analysis Strengths Weaknesses Improvement in Financial Performance Extensive Research & Development Activities Geographical Diversification Pending Litigations Note: Above ratios are based on share price as of 01-Aug-2012...
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