Marked By Sinking Of The Oil Rig Technical â€Myassignmentthelp.Com

Question: Discuss About The Marked By Sinking Of The Oil Rig Technical? Answer: Introduction The disaster caused due to oil spill in 2010 at the Gulf of Mexico is termed as the Deepwater Horizon Disaster. British Petroleum (BP) was held responsible for this disaster and was marked by sinking of the oil rig. Technical failures led the Deepwater Horizon to catch fire that further led to loss of life and injury of many workers. Around 205.8 million gallons of oil is noted to have released into the water due to the spill and is one of the largest disaster, which is related with the water frontiers in the United States of America (USA) (Ingersoll, Locke Reavis, 2012). The objective of the paper is to highlight the ethical issues concerned with oil spill. Overview of Company BP is observed to be a leading player in the gas and oil industry of the global market. It came into existence during the early 1900s in England. The organization uses innovative technology so that it is possible to reduce emission of carbon during extraction of oil and gas from the deep sea. BP operates in 72 nations around the globe and has a total workforce size of above 70,000. Moreover, the well known brand of BP that operates in the global market includes Castrol, Aral and ampm (BP p.l.c, 2017; BP p.l.c, 2017a). The business at present is headed by the Carl-Henric Svanberg, who after the business operations, ensure that all types of risks are well managed. Strategies of BP focuses on reducing the costs that are involved while extraction of oil and gas from sea and deserts. The BP therefore focuses on reducing costs and adhering to sustainable means of production, thereby leading it to attain competitive positioning in the petrochemicals market all round the globe (BP p.l.c, 201 7b). Ethical Issues As already indicated, the oil spill from the oil rig at the Gulf of Mexico is one of the greatest ethical issues that are concerned with BP. Clearly technical failure can be regarded as one of the most fundamental ethical issue that is concerned with oil spill. It means that lack of proper maintenance of the machines is responsible for the fire issue. The machine that was supposed to prevent any damage to the environment during any fatalities such as fire did not function properly. The standards that were supposed to be followed by BP for restricting accidents were also not followed. The committee that was set up for investigating the ethical issues involved in the oil spill is known as the Deepwater Horizon Study Group. As per the report, the working conditions of the oil refinery was not up to the mark along with the preventive measures that were to be taken for preventing fatalities during accidents (Bryant, 2011; Deepwater Horizon Study Group, 2011). Damage caused to the environment due to such spill can be regarded as another ethical issue. Turtles and sea birds that were observed to rely on the sea for survival were tremendously affected due to the oil spill. It can hence be estimated that dolphins were dead due to the spreading of crude oil after the spillage. Other than the moving animals and birds, the Deepwater Horizon report mentioned that corals under the sea have also been affected due to the oil spill from BPs refinery. The ethical dilemma that is involved in this case is that it has not been possible to exactly trace the impact of oil spill on marine ecosystem (Bryant, 2011; Deepwater Horizon Study Group, 2011). Stakeholders Affected by the Ethical Issue Stakeholders apparently refer to the parties that are affected by the tragic oil spill. It can hence be observed that employees working at the refinery were mostly affected due to the oil spill. The reports mentions that a total of 11 workers died due to oil spill. Search and rescue operations that were undertaken by the coast guard were unable to discover the corpse of the workers. It can hence be observed that the workers were so fatally injured that some of them had not even recovered till date. The crew members that were not injured were heavily panic-stricken after watching their peers get harmed from fire. Survivors had to jump from the oil rig for saving themselves (Jarvis, 2010; Mcphee, 2016). BP itself falls in the category of stakeholders that were affected adversely after the deep water horizon incident. It had to incur huge expenses on installation of the machines that were damaged from fire and oil spill. The oil rig hence sank that caused a loss of around $6.3billion. BP was legally liable to pay for the compensations that were caused due to the accident. Fall in the shareholder value was hence found to be another cause that led to the financial loss of BP. Just after the incident of deep water horizon it was observed that shareholder value of BP dropped by 55%. After the incident the share price of BP fell to $27, whereas prior to it the price was $59.48. The barring of BP to raise money by bidding in stick exchanges was passed by the U.S. Environment Protection Agency (the EPA) (Chamberlin, 2014; Ruddick, 2015). Impact of Decisions The impact of EPAs decision to restrict BP from raising money in the stock exchanges of the USA has created an adverse impact on the financial health of the organization. BP is not able to raise funds from the stock market that is necessary to run operations in other areas of the globe. However, the decision can be considered to create a positive impact as it will prevent BP from being incautious in the future regarding upgradations of the safety measures (Chamberlin, 2014; Ruddick, 2015). View on Business Ethics I considered that business ethics is related with the maintenance of good reputation in the market. For instance, organizations must maintain proper product quality and pricing strategies, which are important to built strong reputation. After reading the case study, I came to know that there is a constant need to maintain safety at workplace as a part of ethics. It is in fact duly important to undertake preventive measures that reduce fatalities after accidents. Conclusion The accident that took place at the oil rig of BP at Gulf of Mexico in 2010 is termed as Deepwater Horizon Disaster. It caused spillage of oil and the rig caught fire, which in turn led to the loss of lives of workers and damaged natural habitat. As a result of this, EPA banned BP from raising money from the market that caused fall in the share value. References BP p.l.c 2017, BP at a glance, About BP, finance 14 September, 2017, https://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/about-bp/bp-at-a-glance.html BP p.l.c 2017, Our history, Global, viewed 14 September, 2017, https://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/about-bp/our-history.html BP p.l.c 2017b, Annual report Content, pp. 1-294. Bryant, B 2011. Deepwater horizon and the Gulf oil spill - the key questions answered, Guardian, viewed 14 September, 2017, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/apr/20/deepwater-horizon-key-questions-answered Chamberlin, A 2014, BP lost 55% shareholder value after the Deepwater Horizon incident, Marketing, viewed 14 September, 2017, https://marketrealist.com/2014/09/bp-lost-55-shareholder-value-deepwater-horizon-incident/ Deepwater Horizon Study Group 2011, Final report on the investigation of the Macondo well blowout, Berkeley, pp. 1-126. Ingersoll, C, Locke, R M Reavis, C 2012, BP and the Deepwater Horizon Disaster of 2010, MIT, pp. 1-28. Jarvis, A A 2010, BP oil spill: disaster by numbers, Environment, viewed 14 September, 2017, https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/bp-oil-spill-disaster-by-numbers-2078396.html Mcphee, R 2016, Deepwater Horizon survivor - I had a Healthcare wish for a long time after the rig blew, Mirror, viewed 14 September, 2017, https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/deepwater-horizon-survivor-death-wish-8936532 Ruddick, G 2015, BP reveals $6.3bn quarterly loss owing to Deepwater Horizon bill, Guardian, viewed 14 September, 2017, https://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jul/28/bp-loss-deepwater-horizon-bill