Role of BP in Deepwater Horizon Disaster

Running Head: ROLE OF BP IN DEEPWATER HORIZON DISASTER
ROLE OF BP IN DEEPWATER HORIZON DISASTER
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

ROLE OF BP IN DEEPWATER HORIZON DISASTER
Essay Question:
How did the safety culture throughout British Petroleum contribute to the
extensiveness of the ‘Deepwater Horizon Disaster’?
Introduction:
‘Deepwater Horizon Disaster’ widely known as ‘Deepwater Horizon oil spill’, is the
largest marine oil spill that started on 20th of April, 2010, at the Gulf of Mexico, near the delta
of Mississippi river, United States. This industrial disaster occurred due to the explosion
which took place on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. The Deepwater Horizon rig is owned by
Transocean, an organization engaged in the off-shore oil drilling and leased by BP, a British
multinational oil and gas super major which has its headquartered in the city of London.
Though this oil and gas super major received the recognition of the sixth-largest oil and gas
company, experts claim that the reckless conduct of BP was responsible for the ‘Deepwater
Horizon Disaster’. This essay focuses on the contribution of British Petroleum in the
‘Deepwater Horizon disaster’. Hence the thesis statement for this essay, put forward the
arguments that BP bears the majority of the blame for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The
first section under the main discussion or body part of the essay put forward an argument, in
support of the thesis statement. According to this section, in an attempt to cut its costs BP has
done a series of blunders which resulted into ‘Deepwater Horizon Disaster’. The next section
of the essay cites argues that, BP's faulty decision and communication failures were
responsible behind the mishap. The third section argues that the mishap should be considered
to be the consequences of multiple faults by multiple parties involved with this oil and gas super
major, such as- Transocean and Halliburton. The final section of this essay sums up the
whole incident in a nutshell and provides some recommendations.

ROLE OF BP IN DEEPWATER HORIZON DISASTER
Main Body:
Michel, et al. (2013), has termed, the Deepwater Horizon oil spillas the‘Largest oil
spill’. According to Mason et al. (2014), if the history of petroleum industry was observed,
one will find that, no other oil spill was as massive as Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Kimes, et
al. (2013), argues that, Deepwater Horizon oil spill was 8% to 31% more in volume as
compared to the previous biggest one-Ixtoc I oil spill, which was also occurred in the Gulf of
Mexico. According to Schwacke, et al. (2013), it was a months-long spill which killed 11
people and caused harm to millions of marine habitats. It also impacted wildlife
habitatsadversely. King, et al. (2015), argues that, due to this massive oil spill, fishing and
tourism industries have to bear the burdens of loss. Kimes, et al. (2015), consider that
Deepwater Horizon Disaster contributed largely to water pollution.
Section: 1
Zhou, et al. (2013), blame that the cost cutting strategies of BP contributed largely to
the oil spill disaster, according to the findings of the federal probe, the intention of BP
engineers as well as the managers to save over the drilling costs led to the failure of several
safety measurements that could have prevent the mishap. One of the instances of BP’s lack of
spending on safety measures is the dodgy cement, for which a seal could not be created at the
lower portion of the boreholes. Hence the oil and gas started to leak and reached the pipe
which was exposed on the surface. According to Gutierrez, et al. (2013), BP should engager
more workers to assess whether seal had been created or not. According to Sammarco, et al.
(2013), BP should spend more to arrange two barriers— one mechanical, and one cement,
and should check thoroughly, whether the seal had been created successfully or not.
Dubansky et al. (2013), has found out another instance of lack of expense and ignorance on
the safety measures. According to him, BP did not engage much workers to recheck whether