Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility Case Study

Running head: ETHICS AND CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility
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1ETHICS AND CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
The incident of oil spill in Gulf of Mexico occurred on 20th April, 2010 when an
explosion occurred in the Deep Water Horizon oil rig. Near about 11 people died in this incident
and the rig also slinked which results in a huge amount of oil spill. Survey to the incident says
more than 5 million barrels of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico. The incident not only impacted
to huge amount of loss to the British Petroleum but also affected the shorelines along the cost of
Mexico between Florida and Louisiana. The incident of oil spill has resultant into contamination
of water and death to thousand of aquatic habitats. The Federal Joint Task Force who were
assigned with the task to investigate into the reason behind the oil spill. The report states that the
responsibility of the damage was shared by the British Petroleum, Transocean and Halliburton
but British Petroleum is ultimately responsible for the incident (Arora & Lodhia,2017).
The explosion of the rig resulted into various problems which have been identified by the
non-governmental and governmental organization during their investigation into the incident that
occurred in the Gulf of Mexico. Halliburton, which is one of the multinational corporations
dealing in oil field services, recommended not installing oil rig in the Gulf Of Mexico but the
majority shares of the project were held by the British Petroleum which decided to install the
platform on Gulf of Mexico for oil exploration. Many parties were affected in the incident
directly or indirectly. Tourism and fisheries were mainly affected by the oil spill in the Gulf of
Mexico. The Gulf was a major tourist destination and so the tourism and the persons involved
with tourism has been mostly affected. The tourist and other peoples were prohibited from going
to the affected place, no water sports or fun attraction of the beaches of the Gulf was stopped
which resultant into loss in the tourism sector (Kessler et al., 2017).
The oil spill has also affected the profit percentage of the organization involved in the oil
exploration. The profit percentage of the company falls to 35 percent with the increase in the

2ETHICS AND CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
expenditure, payment of compensation and penalties for the company. This has resultant in
damage and loss to the reputation and finances of the British petroleum. The investors and the
customers of the British Petroleum started moving back and finding other alternatives for their
investment (Susskind et al., 2016).
The stakeholder has impacted by the oil spill in the Deepwater Horizon including the
workmen involved in the process. The stakeholders are not only the owners of the company but
also are those who are involved in the day to day actions of the company. The company carries
on its activities only for the stakeholders. The kind of stakeholders those have been affected by
the oil spill are the workers, tourists, tourist driven business, tourist communities, fisherman,
environment, oil industry, media, government, environmental activists and many more (Matejek
& Gössling, 2014).
Environment is the stakeholder which has been affected significantly due to the incident.
The sea organisms and the ecosystem have been affected due to the incident. The oil spill has
contaminated the water and harms the whole ecosystem. In the assessment made by the Natural
Resources Damage Assessment the BP Oil Spill has impacted almost 1100 miles of the coastal
area and around 32 National Wildlife Refuges are at risk. To reduce the amount of oil spill BP
has used several techniques like burning, skimming and use of chemical dispersants to decrease
the volume of oil but this technique has long term implications on the ecosystem present in the
ocean (Michel et al., 2013).
The oil spill also has impacted economically to the stakeholders. From fisherman to
tourism has totally hampered the economic growth. The oil spill has affected the fisherman the
business man dependant on the fishery, the livelihood of this people is in a very bad situation.