Causes and Impact of the Disaster

BP deep water is one of the worse disasters that have ever caused enormous environmental disasters. This tragedy occurred on 20^th April 2010 due to oil spillage in Deepwaters. According to Andy (2014), the BP deep water had a significant impact to only the environment but also to human life because it led to injuries and deaths. Although various people have come up with different arguments concerning who was responsible for this disaster, it can be urged that ignorance from the BP management was the major cause of what happened.

 According to David & Russell (2011), the Deepwater horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico killed 11 people, left scores injured and affected environment as well as marine life. Based on the reports obtained from underwater cameras and investigations undertaken by various agencies, the BP pipe was leaking oil and gas on the ocean floor and this was the major cause of the problem. By the time the issue was addressed through capping the well on July 2010, close to 87 after the tragedy, statistics indicates that more than 3 million barrels of oil had already leaked.

Enzo (2011) asserts that taking immediate actions when disasters occur is crucial because it aids in preventing a lot of damages from occurring. The BP’s decision of capping the well after 87 days of the accident implies that the management had a problem when it comes to mitigating tragedies. If the company considered taking the right action as soon as possible, it would have prevented losing the oil through leaking, and also polluting the water body.

According to Bob (2016), the explosion involved a lot of things that implied a serious problem within the BP’s nature of operations. For example, the huge amount of oil and natural gas that leaked without actions being taken, the time taken between when the tragedy occurred and when the decision to cap the well was taken, among others. These factors implies that the company had a management that was either reluctant or that did things through assuming everything was fine.

Project managers should be keen on the risks involved in the project they undertake because simple mistakes or ignorance may lead to far reaching problems (John, 2013. A good example is what led to the BP oil spill. According to reports, the cameras indicated that the oil spill had occurred for several days and the management did not consider taking the right action to have them repaired. If BP undertook project evaluations from time to time, it would have noticed that something was not fine with its deep sea well and pipes, and required actions would have been taken before the tragedy occurred.

Risk Mitigation and Project Management

According to Monika (2014), this incidence had a significant impact to not only the environment but also to the economy. Research indicates that after the tragedy, the economic prospects in the gulf coast states were highly affected because the incident had a significant negative impact on different industries which most of the residents depended. For example, the spill made more than a third of the federal waters some of the residents undertook fishing activities to be closed because most of the people feared contamination. The incidence also made more than 8000 people to lose employment as most of the organizations that provided jobs were significantly affected.

Additionally, the incidence also had a far reaching impact on tourism as few travelers were willing visit the petroleum-sullied beaches (Monika, 2014). This implied that those who relied on tourism had to find other ways of supplementing their incomes.

 Following the directions given by president Obama, the company was supposed to provide at least 20 billion dollars compensation fund for those affected by the incidence (Michael & Thomas, 2011). After one year, close to one third of the amount had been paid out, although various issues such as lack of oversight made the government bodies to provide widely inflated claims, some which were unrelated to the spill.

According to Andi (2017), risk prevention is crucial in running organizations because it plays a significant role in making an organization to be termed as ethical and also to reduce unnecessary costs. Through giving the 20 billion dollars to compensate those affected, BP lost funds that it would have used in other factors that would have played a crucial role in promoting the performance of this organization (Michael & Thomas, 2011). Additionally, the incidence made it to appear as a company that does not mind environmental conservation and other factors that promotes the wellbeing of not only its stakeholders but also the whole society.

Michael & Thomas (2011) affirms that maintaining risks and focusing on positive business performance is one of the key factors of enabling an organization to realize a sustainable growth. When this tragedy occurred, this organization suffered not only its reputation but also realized decrease in its stock dividends, a situation that many people especially in Britain where the company accounted for large amount of dividends paid to pension and other retirement funds.

Immediately after the explosion, employee from BP and Transocean and different government bodies prevent the oil from spreading to the beaches and other coastal ecosystems through using various mechanisms such as floating booms (Michael & Thomas, 2011). Additionally, various researcher tried to descend upon the gulf region to collect information concerning the incidence data. However, with the much efforts done to address this issue, no clear information has been provided up to date, as researchers are still attempting to use various means that can help them understand the incidence and how it affected the gulf, coast marine life, and human beings (Robert, 2011). Although the efforts taken to combat the damage and also to understand the incidence may seem serious, most people trust that enough efforts were not undertaken considering the nature of the tragedy, its implications and the causes.

Economic and Environmental Impact

According to John (2015), developing a culture of safety enhancement and taking responsibilities is essential. One of the major factors that led to this tragedy is that the company had not assisted its employees to know the importance of taking safety measures through various tactics such as training, conducting workshops and drills. According to Georges (2013), before this tragedy occurred, BP had reported a string of accidents including a major refinery explosion in Texas. This implies that some of the people in charge of enhancing the workplace safety were not executing their responsibilities as required. The number of accidents that had occurred earlier also implied that the management did not learn from experience and this is the reason that made the company not to repair the pipes and the well that caused the tragedy.

After a month of the incident, BP announced that it would provide around 500 million dollars to fund an in depended research program that would focus of finding out how the oil spill would the environment, aquatic life and human beings.  Based on this decision, one can state that BP did not have proper operational tactics in the fact that it was incurring costs on things that it would have prevented. According to Hampton (2015), prevention of accidents is essential in business operations because it assist organizations to prevent unnecessary costs. If BP identified the potential risks that would have raised and took necessary prevention measures, it would have prevented not only these costs but also its reputation and negative business performance.

After the incident, BP used various measures to mitigate the destruction. However, some of the tactics used led to further destruction. This implies that the company was rushing to things without considering the possible risks that may emerge (Hampton, 2015). Although removing spilled oil from water is termed as difficult task because oil is hydrophobic, BP could have identified the best ways of addressing the issue.

Although BP tried to activate the rigs blowout preventer (BOP) to close the channel used to drawn the oil, the tactic failed. This implies that regardless of having various measures put in place to control and mitigate risks when they arise, some of them were not effective enough to meet the better results. According to Joseph (2011), organizations should try the effectiveness of their risk mitigation measures through conducting drills. Before this incidence occurred, the management could have tested the available measures to find out if they were effective enough to manage accidents. This would have given the company an idea of whether to rely on the available measures or to replace them with others.

Responsibility and Ethics in Organizations

In most cases when some incidences especially those that have negative impact on the environment occur, it becomes hard to implement solutions that can reverse the conditions to be the way they were (Wyeth, 2011). After the spill, it was difficult to reverse the nature of the environment to its initial status and this has made the implications to be felt for several years. For example, after the spill, oil continued to spread in different areas of the sea, killing aquatic life because much of it could not be removed because of various reasons.

Robert (2011) affirms that organizations have the responsibility of ensuring their operations are aimed not only in enhancing their performance but also playing a key role in preserving the environment and enhancing the wellbeing of the people around where they conduct their businesses. BP’s incidence can make one to argue that the management of this company did not use the proper means of running an organization because it did not put into consideration that the products that the organization was dealing with ware highly dangerous and therefore required keenness while being handled (Hampton, 2015). Although one may state that this was an accident, the research that was conducted to find out what caused the incidence indicate that there was some form of ignorance from the management.

After the incidence, a formal civil and criminal investigations in to the spill was initiated in June 2010 by the U.S department of justice.  Due to the findings that were obtained after some period of thorough investigations, this department sued several entities including BP, Transocean, and Anadarko, in New Orleans civil court, primarily for violating the clean water Act and oil pollution Act (John, 2015).  In March 2012, BP’s management agreed to settle assertions made by the complainants’ steering committee for at least 7.8 billion dollars. This implies that this accident significantly affected this company because apart from compensating the affected, giving money to fund research it also made it to be subjected to legal actions that made it to spend a lot of money.

Peter (2017) affirms that knowing rules and operating based on their requirements is fundamental because it makes an organization to enhance its reputation and also to avoid unnecessary costs. If the management understood the clean water Act, oil pollution Act and other legal requirements, it would have not assumed some of the things that made this accident to occur. According to John (2015), going against the law is one of the things that can hurt business operations because apart from fines, it can make an organization to be barred from operations.

Investigations and Legal Actions

In conclusion, the deep water horizon oil spill of 2010 is one of the largest marine oil spills in history. The tragedy occurred in April 20 2010 due to an explosion that occurred in deep-water horizon oil rig which was located in the Gulf of Mexico, almost 66 kilometers of the coast of Louisiana. The tragedy led to various casualties, including loss of 11 lives and several injuries. It also led to significant destruction of marine life and huge economic impact because it affected various industries that played a key role in providing employment.

This incidence affected BP in various ways, like for example, it destroyed its reputation, made it to be subjected to legal action, and also made it to realize various costs. Based on the investigations that were conducted after the incidence, it was revealed that the tragedy was caused due to ignorance because some of the things such as leaking of the pipes would have been rectified if the management undertook its responsibilities in the right manner. Although there was much efforts dedicated towards addressing the issue, some of the measures used were not highly effective, and this made the spill to cause huge destruction.

References:

Andi, M. (2017). Effective Fraud Risk Management.  Journal of Accountancy, 223(6), 87-98.

Andy, H. (2014).  The BP Oil Spill and the End of Empire, Louisiana.  Southern Cultures, 20(3), 65-79.

Bob, C. (2016).  Risk Management Strategies for Coaches.  VAHPERD Journal, 37(1), 784-867.

David, P. F & Russell, W. L. (2011).  BP Oil Spill: Compensation, Agency Costs, and Restitution.  Washington and Lee Law Review, 68(3), 65-78.

Enzo, F. (2011).  Review: Blowout in the Gulf: The BP Oil Spill Disaster and the Future of Energy in America.  Electronic Green Journal, 32, 453-476.

Georges, D. (2013). Risk Management: History, Definition, and Critique.  Risk Management and Insurance Review, 16(2), 78-98.

Hampton, J. J. (2015).  Fundamentals of Enterprise Risk Management: How Top Companies Assess Risk, Manage Exposure, and Seize Opportunity.  New York: American Management Association.

John, B. S. (2015).  The Bp Gulf Oil Spill Class Settlement: Redistributive “Justice?”  Texas Review of Law & Politics, 19(2), 56-76.

John, M. (2013). Risk Management in the Outdoors: A Whole-of-Organization Approach.  Australian Journal of Outdoor Education, 16(2), 543-567.

Joseph, A. E. (2011).  Real-Time Economic Analysis and Policy Development during the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill.  Vanderbilt Law Review, 64(6), 67-89.

Michael, R. L & Thomas, K. H. (2011).  Parens Patriae Litigation to Redress Societal Damages from the BP Oil Spill: The Latest Stage in the Evolution of Crimtorts.  UCLA Journal of Environmental Law & Policy, 29(1), 69-79.

Monika, W. (2014). Risk Management Practices from Risk Maturity Models Perspective.  Journal for East European Management Studies, 19(2), 342-376.

Peter, Y. C. (2017). Public Risk Management: Tome 1: Perspective of Theory and Practice.  Journal of Economics & Management, 30, 121-135.

Robert, D. W. (2012).  FDA Risk Assessment of Seafood Contamination after the BP Oil Spill: The Correspondence Section Is a Public Forum and, as Such, Is Not Peer-Reviewed. EHP Is Not Responsible for the Accuracy, Currency, or Reliability of Personal Opinion Expressed Herein; It Is the Sole Responsibility of the Authors. EHP Neither Endorses nor Disputes Their Published Commentary.  Environmental Health Perspectives, 120(2), 54-67.

Robert, S. L. (2011).  Lessons from Exxon-Valdez: Employing Market Forces to Minimize the Psychological Impact on Oil Spill Plaintiffs.  Law and Psychology Review, 35, 132-145.

Wyeth, J. G. (2011). BP Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill. Energy Law Journal, 32(1), 76-89.