British Petroleum Essay

1. BACKGROUND OF BRITISH PETROLEUM (BP)

Formerly known as British Petroleum, BP is one of the world’s major energy, petroleum and gasoline company in its industry. Founded in 1909, it was originally known as The Anglo-Persian Oil Company. Prior to the company’s emergence was the discovery of oil in the south-west of Iran, which was led by Australian-British mining entrepreneur William Knox D’Arcy and supported by a Scottish company called Burmah Oil Company. This successful oil exploration was known to be the first commercially significant oil discovery in the Middle East.

In present time, BP’s international headquarters is in London but has several other regional headquarters across the globe. It has a staff count of approximately 83,900

Deepwater Horizon Explosion and Oil Spill
The incident occurred due to the uncontrolled release of pressure from the oil well and the failure of the pressure control system to contain the pressure, thus leading to an explosion. Following which, the oil rig sank on 22nd April 2010 and led to the largest oil spill in the history of petroleum industry. The risk of oil spill could have been reduced if BP had taken the appropriate measures; as reports have stated that BP were aware of the metal casing for the blowout preventer breaking down under high pressure and yet improper maintenance was done to preserve the functionality of the pressure control system.

Environmental impact
The oil spill posed detrimental effects on both the marine ecosystem as well as the lives of humans in the affected region. In total, approximately 4.9 million barrels of crude oil were spilled into the water, leading to the suffocation of marine life due to its toxicity. This in turn adversely affected the food supply through contamination, leading to long-term implications on both marine creatures and human

As discussed above, the oil spill led to oil slicks reaching several offshore coasts of the U.S. and contaminating marine life. In view of such circumstance, the U.S. authorities decided to put up a fishing ban and closed an area of 118 000km² which were affected, citing concerns with the dangers of consuming contaminated seafood. As a result, the fishing industry experienced a decrease in supply of seafood that significantly affected the livelihood of its merchants; in particularly those who were involved in oyster beds and shrimp operations in Louisiana. Although the fisheries eventually reopened, consumers continue to remain skeptical about the safety of eating seafood poached from these areas. The incident resulted in an estimated loss of $4.36 billion to the entire fishing industry