Ethics Report And Recommendations For Bp - 1497 Words

Ethics Report and Recommendations for BP Executive Summary The focus of this report will be to perform an audit of Beyond Petroleum’s ethical practices. This report will identify three main breaches of ethics, explain why they are unethical and make recommendations of what could be done to rectify the issues identified. Introduction Beyond Petroleum (BP) is one of the world’s largest energy industries, involved in all activities which are associated with the oil and gas industry. This includes â€Å"exploring, producing, refining, distributing and marketing of these products† to a global market (1). BP operates in around 80 countries with over 83,000 employees, producing 3.2 million barrels of oil daily and an economic value of $403.3†¦show more content†¦Below is an analysis of some of their ethical violations: Deepwater Horizon oil Spill: BP’s drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico had an explosion in April 2010, causing the â€Å"largest oil spill catastrophe in the petroleum industry history†. It caused the death of 11 men and injury to several others. â€Å"More than 150,000 barrels of crude oil gushed into the sea, every day, for almost 5 months and up to 68,000 square miles of the Gulf s surface were covered† (1). Over 8000 animals were reported dead 6 months after the spill, including many that were on the endangered species list (7). Subsequently, seafood prices increased affecting restaurants and supermarkets. People abstained from going to beaches covered in oil, water sports and other aquatic attractions which meant that all organisations involved in tourism such as hotels, tour operators, restaurants and boat rental companies were affected (1). Furthermore, the method of cleaning up the oil by â€Å"in-situ burning† (burning oil in a contained area on the surface of the water), had adverse effects on the environment as the burning off of the oil led to mutations and increased mortality due to pollution. Although the accident was caused by a mechanical failure, it spiralled out of control because of an insufficient safety system. BP acted inefficiently and their carelessness cost the lives of people and damaged the environment, nevertheless this does not mean they acted in an unethical way as