Corporate Responsibility and Governance: The BP Oil Spill Case Study

This essay provides an overview of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, emphasizing its ethical and environmental consequences. It discusses the causes of the disaster, including the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil platform and the resulting massive oil spill. The essay examines the spill's impact on the environment, including the degradation of marine ecosystems and the long-lasting effects on the Gulf of Mexico. It also analyzes the impact on various stakeholders, such as the companies involved, the people living near the affected areas, and the government. The essay explores key issues like environmental degradation, health issues, societal impact, and human rights breaches. It suggests measures for companies and governments to improve corporate social responsibility, including safety measures, risk assessment, and effective communication. The essay concludes by highlighting the importance of ethical practices and responsible governance in the oil and gas industry to prevent future disasters and protect the environment and stakeholders.

Running Head: Corporate Responsibility and Governance
Corporate Responsibility and Governance

Corporate Responsibility and Governance 1
“Gulf of Mexico Oil spill issue and ethics related to the case”
The purpose of this task is to provide a brief overview about the BP oil spill Mexico. The issue
ethically harmed the environment and the stakeholders. So, in response to that the essay talks
about the issue which the companies and the environment because of the deep-water horizon oil
spill. Further it shall be noted that not only in monetary term but the spill also ethically hampered
the growth of the environment. More details about the issue, it cause, measures to rectify them
are discussed below:
Initially talking about the BP oil spill it shall be noted that this issue is related to oil and gas
industry. In early 2010, particularly on 20th April, the deep-water oil platform which is located
near Louisiana coast was affected by a disastrous event. The Deep-water horizon is owned and
operated Transocean and oil company BP. This oil spill is regarded as the biggest oil spill of all
time did major destructions. Deepwater Horizon was a semi-submersible 10 years old drilling rig
which used to operate its activities 10,000 feet deep in water. It was built by a South Korean
company Hyundai and was owned by Transocean. The rig used to drill 18,360 feet below the sea
level (BBC, 2017).
Further the explosion occurred around 9:45 CDT on 20th April 2010, when high pressure
methane gas from the drilled well got expanded into the drilling riser and then suddenly it
resulted in drilling rig. Ultimately compulsion all these gases and activities resulted in explosion
in the oil spill and engulfed the platform. Eleven workers of the companies faced death and
seventeen workers were adversely injured because of the explosion. Later the oil horizon sank in
the sea on 22nd of April. This activity later adversely affected the state of the nature. The oil spill
got attracted to the offshore as well. Thus it is regard as the biggest marine oil spill of all time. as
it got displaced in various part of gulf of Mexico. Further it is regarded as the biggest oil spill
because the volume to which the oil got dispersed in sea and offshore is massive, 68,000 square
miles of ocean got affected with this spill and 330,000 gallons of crude was poured in the water
because of explosion. Thus, with this above mentioned data it shall be noted that the oil spill and
sinking of the horizon poorly affected the environment even more than expected (Jain, Aguilera,
and Jamali, 2017).

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More than this, the major problem was submerging of oil underwater. Researcher concluded to
this issue that deep plumes of dissolved crude will remain confined to the northern Gulf of
Mexico and also the dissolution will highly impact on the flow of oxygen in the environment.
Also the stated that this impact will take to recover and will show a long lasting impact on the
environment. So, the wellhead was finally capped on 15th of July 2010 when the surface of the
sea started appearing clear but the subsurface was still there and it started positioning offshore
and on fin silts. Further in the year 2013, more than 460,000 pounds of oil particles were found
in the Louisiana land and it had reached to Tampa Bay Florida as well. Thus, it came clear that
the effect of such explosion was seen at places in the environment and it can be cleared in just
one go. People, companies and government on this cause to keep the environment protected and
the growth is showing at some places as well. This spill also affected different species of the
world that have their livelihood connected to the marine. Thus, it was the major issue of the Gulf
of Mexico oil spill.
Relating the horizon to stakeholders of the industry it shall be noted that many people are
connected with the issue like companies, people living on offshore, government and the society
on a whole. These entire stakeholders were affected with the impact. Analyzing the impact of oil
spill on stakeholder it shall be noted that many species were injured and died because of the
explosion and the corruption in the water. Contaminated water was drunk by the people and
different species which made to unhealthy and resulted in deaths as well. Apart from different
species, people living in that area were also adversely affected by the issue. Environment got
polluted because of oil spill due to which people faced difficultly in initiating their day to day
activities as well. With the unhealthy environment, health of the people living in that area started
getting depreciated as well. Further these are the impacts of oil spill on the stakeholders of the
issue. Apart from that talking about the companies present in the industry were also affected with
the cause as the government started imposing more and more penalty on them and initiating strict
corporate social responsibilities on them. Lastly talking about the stakeholders of the company it
shall be noted that the faced difficulty in managing the people environment and companies and
issue at the same time, thus resulting to which they faced loss in their resources as well. Along
with which more ethical practices were initiated by them so as to protect the environmental
degradation (Rodriguez-r, et. al., 2015).

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The major key issues connected to the oil spill are discussed below environmental degradation,
health issues of stakeholders, societal impact and waive of human rights. These are the major
issues which are connected to the cause as the environment got polluted and degraded with the
oil spill and this can be regarded as breach human rights. The companies who were connected
with the should have explained crucially above the activities which they initiate and its cause in
the environment, as no person in the community was having adequate knowledge about the
activities which the companies initiate and its impact on the environment. And the stakeholders
have the right to access information about the issue, resulting to which, it appeared as a
breachment of the human rights (ExxonMobil, 2017). Another issue was the failure of the
organizations to respond correctly to the issue and initiate their corporate social responsibilities.
It is very important for the companies which are present in the oil and gas industry to understand
their social responsibilities and initiate activities accordingly so as to secure the state of the
environment.
Furthermore best practices shall be initiated in the industry so that in the later time the
environment is saved from occurring of such issue. Initially the organizations ad governments
shall create safety measure around the oil spill. Several measures shall be created in such a way
that even if the employees see some problem coming, then they shall be adequately equipped to
prevent the issue from occurring. The companies shall develop framework and policies to use the
measures in case of emergency. Further all the organizations shall individually and co-
operatively aim to fulfill the corporate social responsibilities so as to keep the stakeholders
interested in activities of the companies (Arora, & Lodhia, 2017).
Risk assessment activities shall be initiated by the government. The governments shall quarterly
ask the companies to submit the risk assessment report with them along with sustainability
report. This will help the government to keep a check on the activities of the companies and
restrict them from performing unethical activities.
Communication is another best way to secure the environment and present the occurring of
damage. Suppose if such oil spill has happened again then the initially responsibility of the
platform workers is to communicate about the issue to all people so that they can protect
themselves and take responsibility to minimize the cause as well. Thus, communication of issue

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shall be made on the priority basis and the managers shall train the employees on how to actively
act when such issue occurs.
The oil and gas industry is highly sensitive industry and its activities are highly reactive as well.
From the activities initiated by the companies, greenhouse gases are emitted in the environment
from the combustion of mobile internal engines and stationary. This leads to emergence of
unseen calamities as well. Thus the energy efficiency activities shall be initiated so as to cure the
environmental degradation (Resnik, et. al., 2015).
Thus in the limelight of above mentioned events, the facts that shall be noted is that the
Deepwater horizon oil spill adversely affected the state of the environment. The Explosion was
made in the Gulf of Mexico which made the oil dispersed in the whole sea and later submerges
in water. Resulting to which, this issue gave a long lasting effect on the environment. The
stakeholders of the industry were adversely affected with the spill. Resulting to which, the above
mentioned task explain about the ethical practice which shall be initiated in the environment so
as to rectify the cause. The report adequately justifies the requirements of the task.

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Reference
Arora, M. P., & Lodhia, S. (2017). The BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill: Exploring the link between
social and environmental disclosures and reputation risk management. Journal of Cleaner
Production, 140, 1287-1297.
BBC, (2017). Geography. Viewed on November 25, 2017 from <
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/geography/wasting_resources/
waste_pollution_rev5.shtml>
ExxonMobil, (2017). Corporate Citizenship Report. . Viewed on November 25, 2017 from
http://corporate.exxonmobil.com/en/community/corporate-citizenship-report
Jain, T., Aguilera, R.V. and Jamali, D., (2017). Corporate stakeholder orientation in an emerging
country context: A longitudinal cross industry analysis. Journal of Business Ethics,
143(4), pp.701-719.
Resnik, D. B., Miller, A. K., Kwok, R. K., Engel, L. S., & Sandler, D. P. (2015). Ethical issues in
environmental health research related to public health emergencies: reflections on the
GuLF STUDY. Environmental health perspectives, 123(9), A227.
Rodriguez-r, L. M., Overholt, W. A., Hagan, C., Huettel, M., Kostka, J. E., & Konstantinidis, K.
T. (2015). Microbial community successional patterns in beach sands impacted by the
Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The ISME journal, 9(9), 1928-1940.