BP Case and Ethical Issues in Business



BP Case and Ethical Issues in Business

Introduction

The catastrophic event of oil spillage in Gulf of Mexico was a game changer event for British Petroleum and business reconsideration for oil and gas industry in the April of 2010. It raises ethical and legal questions related to the operations and management of business in the midst of this event. Business risks, operating models, business regulations, and contractor relationships were closely reviewed to understand the outcomes and consequences of this major event. This assignment presents an ethical and legal outlook of oil spillage event of Mexico Gulf. Utilitarianism and Deontology has been discussed with corporate roles and responsibilities to understand the subjective matter of this case.

Discussion

Overview

British Petroleum (BP) is one of the largest integrated oil and gas companies in the world that offers fuel, lubricants, energy, and petrochemicals across more than eighty countries across the globe. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill was the most dangerous and influential spillage in the history of BP and across the world. The explosion of Deepwater Horizon in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico on 20th of April, 2010 estimated the spill of 4.9 million barrels of oil into the sea (Balmer et al., 2011). This largest oil spill into the marine waters brings on various issues on different grounds for the oil and gas industry. The challenges and complexity lies in addressing the energy needs of different countries with a negative impact on the future of British Petroleum.

The danger lies with the delayed efforts made to rehabilitate from this catastrophic tragedy for marine and business. On July 15 i.e. three months later the event, the leak was capped after the loss of 5 million barrels of oil in the Gulf. Some quantity of oil has been evaporated, some reached to the floor of the ocean, while a measurable amount of oil remained on the surface of the sea (Bozeman, 2011). There were efforts made to stem this damage on vessels of opportunity of fishermen. They were asked to skim the observable oil from the surface to process it out of the water. This case study highlights the distortion in understanding the Gulf of Mexico and British Petroleum.

Ethical Issues

The case of oil spill at the Gulf of Mexico has been considered as an ethical nightmare for British Petroleum. The administration and public relations department had shown deaf ear to the concerns about the installing instruments to measure the extent to which oil has been spilled in the sea. Furthermore, the moral and legal considerations for environment and wildlife were another concern for everyone. This sheer magnitude of the spill damage raises questions for government to intervene and restrict press access to the British Petroleum. Government also failed to put reasonable justifications to justify all the related consequences and circumstances of this event (Goldstein et al., 2011). They failed to justify restriction of press access for independent engineers and scientist in order to preserve their corporate ...