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Company: British Petroleum (BP), Oil Spills in Prudhoe Bay and Deepwater Horizon

Name

Institution
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Abstract

The purpose of this essay is to discuss the ethical and moral challenge experienced by British

Petroleum Company during the two oil spills in Prudhoe Bay and Deepwater Horizon. Moral

reasoning is applied in evaluating the decisions taken by British Petroleum Company and

justifying or faulting them. The main sources of information for this essay are articles written

about this topic. Moreover, the utilitarian theory is used to explain the unethical and immoral

decisions of BP. The finding presented in this essay is that BP took unethical and immoral

decisions of following business profits in total disregard of the safety of the society as well as the

environment. The companys actions of negligent in a bid to save its money led to massive losses

caused by the oil spillage.

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Company: British Petroleum (BP), Oil Spills in Prudhoe Bay and Deepwater Horizon

The Moral Challenge or Dilemma

British Petroleum, BP, is a business organization of integrated energy companies. It is

one of the largest companies in the world. BP normally has business interests in virtually all

activities that are related to oil and gas. Some of the business interests of BP include exploration

and production, refining, marketing and distribution of oil and gas products at the international

market (Li, Zhu & Lu, 2014). Moreover, BP involves in the renewable energy sources such as

wind and solar power. BP normally produces 4 million barrels of crude oil and 3.8 million

barrels of naturals gas every day. It has operations in 100 countries (Li, Zhu & Lu, 2014). The

company has employed 83,000 people across the world. Its annual revenue is currently above

$386 billion (Li, Zhu & Lu, 2014). BP has been marred in ethical and moral dilemmas in the

course of doing business. The most recent ethical and moral dilemma that faced the company

was about the oil spills in Prudhoe Bay and Deepwater Horizon (Li, Zhu & Lu, 2014). This essay

gives the moral and ethical challenge that the company faced and applies moral reasoning to

evaluate the decisions that it took.

Business ethics and morals is basically a theory about the interconnection between

commerce and the society (Resick, Hargis, Shao & Dust, 2013). Normally, the objective of any

business entity is earning profits. On the other hand, the society tends to look at businesses as

part of it hence its activities have to be acceptable and in line with societal norms and practices.

The society does not expect a business entity to engage in a business activity that is harmful to it,

just because it is profitable. Business ethics and morals arise in this situation where the interests

of the society have to be considered. The need for business ethics and morals normally put
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companies such as British Petroleum in a dilemma, where they are required to make quite

difficult decisions. Such a situation may be described as a business ethical and moral dilemma or

challenge. This is a circumstance where more than two social morals of work are in sharp

conflict.

The first ethical and moral dilemma of British Petroleum was in the oil spill that

happened in the Deepwater Horizon. Deepwater Horizon is the drilling platform of BP within the

Gulf Mexico (Li, Zhu & Lu, 2014). It had an explosion in the year 2010. The explosion made the

biggest oil spill disaster in the history of the petroleum industry. In this ordeal, 11 people were

killed and 17 others sustained serious injuries. Furthermore, more than 150,000 barrels of crude

oil got into the sea daily, for duration of 5 months (Li, Zhu & Lu, 2014). The gravity of the

incident was marked by at least 68,000 square miles of the surface of the Gulf (Li, Zhu & Lu,

2014). The ethical and moral dilemma that BP faced in this massive oil spill was whether to

continue with the drilling to earn profits or shut down the drilling rig in the interest of the safety

of people.

The Prudhoe Bay oil spillage also presented another case of ethical and moral dilemma

for BP. This explosion happened in the year 2006 (Li, Zhu & Lu, 2014). The oil spillage released

I million liters of crude oil into the tundra of the Alaskas North Slope. The incident was only

discovered after 5 days (Li, Zhu & Lu, 2014). Investigators said corrosion in the pipe, which

caused its rapture, was the main origin of this oil spillage. In this case, the company faced the

dilemma of correcting the risky corrosion in the pipe, which had been detected 2 years prior to

the explosion, or just ignore it as an unnecessary risk and save the money.

Moral Reasoning about the Decisions of BP

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In both cases of oil spillage, BP took decisions that were out rightly wrong, when

considered from a moral reasoning point of view. Starting with the oil spillage in the Deepwater

Horizon, it is understood that there were various causes as discovered by different investigation

agencies. Virtually all the reasons explained for the oil spillage proved the unethical and immoral

business decisions made by BP. The installation of an oil drilling platform in the region was

cited among the causes of the spillage. Despite this finding, BP chose to continue with oil

drilling in the area even using cheaper and riskier well designs (Wu & Olson, 2015). This

decision to continue with the drilling with cheaper well designs showed lack of moral, ethical

and professional behavior on the part of British Petroleum Company. It was a blatant prejudice

as affront to the social responsibility and ethical requirement of BP.

The 2010 oil spillage put BP in a moral dilemma of choosing between saving costs by

ignoring the risk in the drilling rigs as unnecessary or spending money on a large number of

facilities on the platform rig to make it safe. The utilitarian theory can be applied in this case, to

determine whether the decisions taken by BP were justified or not.

According to the utilitarian theory, actions and decisions of a person have to be premised

on moral as well as ethical rules. The utilitarian theory provides that decisions of people must be

morally and ethically positive (Ghillyer, 2008). In explaining morality and ethics, the utilitarian

theory provides that the justification of decisions should be based on their consequences. This

model focuses on the outcomes of decisions, which cause the utilities. The moral reasoning

behind this model is that people have to sacrifice personal benefits and incur some costs for the

larger society to gain. From this moral reasoning, the oil spillage at BP minimized the benefits to

the larger society. Tourism and the fishing industries were greatly affected by the oil spillage.
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Moreover, the oil spillage also led to health problems in the region. The marine ecosystem was

devastatingly damaged by the oil spillage.

In the Alaskan Oil spill, within Prudhoe Bay, BP Company committed a moral and

ethical error by deciding to be negligent to the corrosion in the pipe, which was discovered 2

years before the explosion (Hsu, Liu, Yang & Chou, 2013). BP decided to ignore the detected

corrosion as less risky and chose to save the money that would have been used to correct it. The

oil spillage that happened as a result of this corrosion destroyed the environment and ecosystems

greatly. From a moral reasoning point of view based on the utilitarian theory, the decision taken

by BP in this case was immoral and unethical (Sama & Shoaf, 2008). It cannot be justified

because in its quest for business profits, it caused destruction and losses to the larger society. The

morally and ethically right and justifiable decision that the BP company should have taken was

considering the concerns raised by employees about the corrosion in the pipeline and correct it

promptly. However, BP chose to save the money that would have been expended in renewing the

pipeline.

Lessons Learned

The case of oil spillage at BP Company has a lot of lessons. Firstly, it teaches the need to

have renewable and safe sources of energy replace the use of crude oil and gas. The oil spillage

at BP has made people to think about switching to the use of alternative sources of energy in

order to avoid the environmental risks associated with oil and gas accidents (Dalla, 1999). The

incident also raised the importance of reviewing and improving the construction and well design

standards of the oil drilling rigs used by petroleum firms.

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From the actions of BP, there is the lesson of the painful consequences of being negligent

in business. It can now be realized that it is vital to pay attention to every detail raised in the

course of business. Any action of negligence can easily lead to fatal losses and damages to

company reputation (Trevino, Hartman & Brown, 2000). Similarly, this incident teaches about

the significance of all business stakeholders in a company. It is vital to consider and take action

on every concern raised by employees about the company. Ignoring peoples comments may

make a business to pay huge price for it.

Companies operating in the petroleum industry have to implement austerity measures

aimed at averting losses when emergencies arise (Brown, Trevio & Harrison, 2005). There must

be a clearly defined framework for risk as well as hazard detection and disaster management in

the oil and gas companies. This can help them be able to make profits while keeping the society

safe. These are some of the lessons learned from the incident of BP. Moreover, the incident

raised the alertness of people, especially in petroleum companies so that hazards and disasters

can be reported early. In the case of BP, the disaster of oil spillage was detected after a period of

over 5 days (Li, Zhu & Lu, 2014). Businesses have to put the ethics and morals of good

commercial activities as their priority when making decisions, so that the interests of the society

are safeguarded in their chase for profits (Brown & Trevio, 2006). The oil spillage incident

offered lessons about the need to support policies that emphasize the efficiency of production

and use of energy.

Conclusion

The purpose of this essay was to discuss the ethical and moral challenge experienced by

British Petroleum Company during the two oil spills in Prudhoe Bay and Deepwater Horizon. As
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companies chase profits, it is ethical and moral for businesses to keep the interests of the society.

The case of oil spillage at BP should be a lesson and wake-up call to all businesses across the

world about the need for upholding corporate social responsibility. If BP had cared to apply

some moral and ethical reasoning, it would have not taken the decisions it chose. The worst of all

was ignoring the concerns raised by employees about the corrosion of the pipeline, which had

been 2 years prior to the eventual explosion. This case of BP offers the significant lesson that

following the selfish interests of a company in utter disregard of the societal welfare may result

in damages that cost the company huge expenses to resolve. The outcome of this selfishness in

the chase of business profits is always big losses to the company when a disaster happens.

Making decisions that uphold business ethics and morals as well as corporate social

responsibility benefits both the company in terms of profits and the larger society.
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