BP Oil Spill Essay

1. Introduction

In 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil platform spit nearly five million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, making it the largest oil spill in history. The 1989 oil spill surpassed Exxon Valdez's oil spill in 1989 as the largest oil spill ever seen in US-controlled waters and the Ixtoc I oil spill of 1979 as the largest oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. On April 20, 2010, Deepwater Horizon, an ultra-deepwater offshore rig, exploded in the Gulf of Mexico about 41 miles off the coast of Louisiana, killing 11 riggers and injuring 17 others. The fire burned for 36 hours and the Macondo Prospect delivered about 4.9 million barrels of oil before being closed and sealed on 15 July almost three months later. The oil spill in the

I've already noticed that Macondo Prospect was powered by BP, making BP the most interesting company for my research. However, there are other companies that have performed operations to establish this source of oil. BP has leased the Macondo well from Transocean so we can identify Transocean as the owner of the well. BP held only 65 percent of the Macondo prospectus and we can identify the Anadarko Petroleum Corporation and MOEX Offshore as the other owners, with a 25 percent and 10 percent stake in the Macondo oil

Since BP was the main operator of the Macondo project, BP will be the starting point for my research. In the first part of this study, I will describe BP as a company. I will discuss his business, the services they offer, and the industries in which they compete. By analyzing the business environment of BP, I can identify companies that may be affected indirectly by the oil spill, such as: For example, their competitors, suppliers and oilfield service providers.

To understand changes in returns for the shareholders of the affected companies, we must first understand the scale of the economic consequences of the oil spill. Therefore, I will examine the consequences of the oil spill and the reactions of the parties involved, such as BP, the government, the states involved, the fisheries and tourism industry and other parties affected by the oil spill. These consequences include environmental damage, litigation, cleaning costs and stricter