Discuss about the Corporate Responsibility and Governance for Oil Spill.
Deepwater horizon was a semi submersible, ultra deepwater, dynamically positioned, offshore rig under the ownership of Transocean. On 2009, they drilled the deepest well (10,683 meters) in the Gulf of Mexico. On 20th April, 2010, during the drilling for Macondo Prospect, an explosion occurred at the rig due to a blowout, as a result of which 11 crew members were killed and created a ball of fire that was visible from 64 Km. The fire was impossible to control, and in two days it sank, and the well kept leaking oil from the seafloor, leading to one of the largest oil spills. This caused a massive environmental damage due to the oil entering the marine ecosystem. The rig was under lease to British Petroleum (BP) till 2013 and after investigation BP was charged with negligence and willful misconduct which made this accident possible (Brennan, 2013; Goldstein et al., 2011; Cleveland et al., 2010; BP, 2010).
There are several ethical concerns related to the event. Apart from the 11 casualties in the accident and additional 17 were injured and almost 5 million barrels (about 780,000 cc) of oil was leaked into the ocean that covered an area of 176,000 sq km (BP, 2010; Dadashzadeh et al., 2013; Eckle et al., 2012). The waters were consequently closed to fishing to prevent contamination. This additionally led to loss of several jobs at the fishing industry. The spill also caused many whales and dolphins being stranded, and the deaths of thousands of turtles, birds and mammals who got covered in the oil from the spill (Lauritsen et al., 2017; Venn-Watson et al., 2015; Beyer et al., 2016). The brown pelican which was declared as an endangered species, was one of the worst affected by the spill (Walter et al., 2014; Wallace et al., 2017).
First ethical concern is the magnitude of damage caused due to the oil spill on the marine habitat and the effect on wildlife in the Gulf of Mexico. For several years, BP also refused to take full responsibility of the accident, and instead blamed others. However, it was acknowledged by BP the different types of species being affected by the spill, and soaked in the oil and the natural habitats being destroyed because of the oil spill. Also, the effects of the agents used to disperse the oil on the marine life were also not analyzed in detail before being used at the site, which shows a significant form of negligence towards environment. The dispersants breaks down the oil droplets into smaller droplets, which helps it to mix with water more easily. In the deepwater Horizon, more than 1.4 million gallons of different types of dispersants used. These can also enter the food chain, and have potential adverse effects on the wildlife (Beyerb et al., 2016).
The second ethical concern was the effect on the various stakeholders due to the oil spill. The Fishing industry was affected, since the area of the oil spill soon became out of bounds for any fishing activities, and hence caused loss of jobs. The seafood industry similarly got affected due to this, as the fishing restriction meant they had to look for other fishing areas. Moreover, the fear of contamination of the food and its subsequent health risks also affected the fishing and seafood industry as well the consumers (Alvarez et al., 2015; Incardona et al., 2014). The oil spill also destroyed the aesthetic value of the place, with large swathes of oil deposits in the region, which repelled tourists and visitors. This was a major disadvantage to the tourism industry. These aspects also affected the local communities adjoining the affected coast (Shultz et al., 2015).
The third ethical concern is the loss of lives and disabilities caused due to the accident and safety concerns of those involved in its cleanup. Any form of human casualty and threat to human wellbeing is an ethical concern of any organization. Ensuring the full safety of the workers is one of the prime responsibilities of the organization (Pangborn et al., 2018).
The fourth ethical issue is regarding the circumstances that can support a government or a private company in limiting what data is made accessible to the public. This also raises a question about the level of access the press should have on the site, was BP valid in limiting access of the press as well as independent scientists and engineers to the site to preserve its image, to what extent does the government has obligation to intervene to ensure public access to information that they are entitled to know and what information is the public entitled to (Thompson, 2014).
After the explosion of the Deepwater oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, BP struggled to stem the oil leak due to which the oil got spread ashore to the Gulf Coast and the white sand beaches of Florida. Since the accident, several wrong decisions were made by BP, which is discussed next:
On April, the rig was drilling about 1,525 meter of water, and already pushing the boundary of deepwater drilling technology. This decision put at risk the well being of the oil rig crew as well as the entire project at stake. The operator of the rig said that they had to prior warning before the explosion occurred, while BP blamed failed safety systems and the irresponsible behavior of the contractors which caused the explosion. It was also claimed that the safe well requirements were not properly analyzed using the cement modeling software, as a result of which the number of stabilizers required for the well was miscalculated. This accident could have been avoided is the construction of the well was first tested before being actually performed on the oil rig. However, it was not performed to cut the costs of the operation (Brennan, 2013).
In the attempt to prevent further damage, BP used undersea robots for stopping the oil spill by activating the blowout preventer, however the attempts failed and the leakage of oil continued. In the subsequent hearings, BP, Transocean and Halliburton blame each other for the disaster, pointing negligence towards their duties. The decision of BP to use a wide variety of dispersals of oil before testing their effect on biological life was also created a significant impact on the ecosystem and the marine food chain (Beyer et al., 2016).
BP was also scorned upon due to the lack of responsible action to mitigate the problems due to oil spillage instead of blaming other companies. It would have been useful for BP to allow external scientists and reporters to have access to the site to perform independent studies and report on them, which could have informed the key decisions taken by BP. Reporting the place as unsafe and preventing public access to information. Also, it was important for BP to promptly seal the well after the accident, to prevent further spillage of oil, instead of attempting a temporary solution to the problem, which caused further spillage of oil (BP, 2010; Brennan, 2013).
In this context, I believe the best decisions would have been to properly check and test the drilling process and safety issues before extending the well. The attempt to extend the well beyond the recommended limit was a major hazardous decision. Similarly, immediate steps to prevent spillage of oil, by completely sealing of the damaged well should have been made the main focus. I believe BP should have had a significant focus to address the concern of environmental disaster caused due to the spillage, instead to preventing further losses.
Conclusion
It can thus be concluded, that the Deepwater Horizon was an accident which could have been avoided, if proper precautionary measures being taken, and its environmental impact could have been minimized by timely action by the involved companies. It is important that factors such as the ecological impact, loss of lhuman as well as animal lives, and its effect on the stakeholders be properly considered while making the decisions. Since accidents in oil rigs can impose mortal risk on the workers, have immense environmental impacts, affect the livelihood of many others, it is vital that the most stringent form of regulations and punitive measures for non compliance are implemented by governments to prevent any such incidents in the future.
References:
Alvarez, S., Larkin, S. L., Whitehead, J. C., & Haab, T. (2015). Corrigendum: A revealed preference approach to valuing non-market recreational fishing losses from the Deepwater Horizon spill. Journal of Environmental Management, 150, 516-518. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2014.06.031
Beyer, J., Trannum, H. C., Bakke, T., Hodson, P. V., & Collier, T. K. (2016). Environmental effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill: a review. Marine pollution bulletin, 110(1), 28-51. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2016.06.027
BP (Firm). (2010). Deepwater horizon accident investigation report. BP. Url: https://www.bp.com/content/dam/bp/pdf/sustainability/issue-reports/Deepwater_Horizon_Accident_Investigation_Report.pdf
Brennan, L. C. (2013). Gulf Oil Spill. ABDO Publishing Company. Url: https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=0HB3AgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=Brennan,+L.+C.+(2013).+Gulf+Oil+Spill&ots=AFt1xEptUK&sig=zxaCRi4PDz1CTbDxacPKtq4c23Q#v=onepage&q&f=false
Cleveland, C., Hogan, C. M., & Saundry, P. (2010). Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The encyclopedia of earth. Url: https://tos.org/oceanography/article/deepwater-horizon-oil-spill-a-review-of-the-planktonic-response
Dadashzadeh, M., Abbassi, R., Khan, F., & Hawboldt, K. (2013). Explosion modeling and analysis of BP Deepwater Horizon accident. Safety science, 57, 150-160. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2013.01.024
Eckle, P., Burgherr, P., & Michaux, E. (2012). Risk of large oil spills: a statistical analysis in the aftermath of Deepwater Horizon. Environmental science & technology, 46(23), 13002-13008. DOI: 10.1021/es3029523
Goldstein, B. D., Osofsky, H. J., & Lichtveld, M. Y. (2011). The Gulf oil spill. New England Journal of Medicine, 364(14), 1334-1348. DOI: DOI: 10.1056/NEJMra1007197
Incardona, J. P., Gardner, L. D., Linbo, T. L., Brown, T. L., Esbaugh, A. J., Mager, E. M., … & Tagal, M. (2014). Deepwater Horizon crude oil impacts the developing hearts of large predatory pelagic fish. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(15), E1510-E1518. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1320950111
Lauritsen, A. M., Dixon, P. M., Cacela, D., Brost, B., Hardy, R., MacPherson, S. L., … & Witherington, B. (2017). Impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on loggerhead turtle Caretta caretta nest densities in northwest Florida. Endangered Species Research, 33, 83-93. DOI: 10.3354/esr00794
Pangborn, J. Z., Moore, K. J., Santiago, K. M., Trapido, E. J., Subra, W. A., Fleming, L. E., & Caban-Martinez, A. J. (2018). 613 Occupational health and safety perspectives of louisiana first responders involved in the 2010 deepwater horizon oil spill. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.1136/oemed-2018-ICOHabstracts.535
Shultz, J. M., Walsh, L., Garfin, D. R., Wilson, F. E., & Neria, Y. (2015). The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill: the trauma signature of an ecological disaster. The journal of behavioral health services & research, 42(1), 58-76. DOI: 10.1007/s11414-014-9398-7
Thompson, D. F. (2014). Responsibility for failures of government: The problem of many hands. The American Review of Public Administration, 44(3), 259-273. DOI: doi/abs/10.1177/0275074014524013
Venn-Watson, S., Colegrove, K. M., Litz, J., Kinsel, M., Terio, K., Saliki, J., … & Pitchford, J. (2015). Adrenal gland and lung lesions in Gulf of Mexico common bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) found dead following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. PLoS One, 10(5), e0126538. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0126538
Wallace, B. P., Brosnan, T., McLamb, D., Rowles, T., Ruder, E., Schroeder, B., … & Wehner, D. (2017). Effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on protected marine species. Endangered Species Research, 33, 1-7. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/esr00789
Walter, S. T., Carloss, M. R., Hess, T. J., & Leberg, P. L. (2014). Demographic trends of Brown Pelicans in Louisiana before and after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Journal of Field Ornithology, 85(4), 421-429. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/jofo.12081
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