Unit 37 – Business Ethics
Task 4a – Describe ethical concerns facing diferent communites
BP In Troubled Waters
By James Tilley
D eepwater Horizon was an ultra-
deepwater, dynamically positoned, semi-
submersible ofshore drilling rig built in 2001 in
South Korea by Hyundai Heavy Industries. In
September 2009, the rig drilled the deepest oil
well in history, at a depth of 10,683 meters.
On April 20th, a blowout caused an explosion
that killed 11 crewmen and ignited a freball
that could be witnessed 40 miles away. The fre
was never contained and two days later, on
April 22nd, the oil rig sank.
Corporate Social Responsibility is defned as a form of corporate self-regulaton, where a company
should consider social, ethical and environmental efects of its actvites on its staf and communites
around it.
One local ethical consideraton aaer the sinking of Deepwater would be the families of those who
died on board, were injured, or lost their jobs.
Another local issue would be the sharp reducton in tourism due to the coastline and the
surrounding oceans being polluted. The subsequent recovery of the waste of the coastline would
reduce and impact tourism for longer than the disaster took to clean up.
The locals around the US coastline reported sickness and headaches due to the polluton, however,
this cannot be confrmed, as there weren’t enough details to confrm this, and because the oil didn’t
get into their food or water supply.
A natonal issue may be the US’s fne of BP, in which they sued BP for around u10 billion for pollutng
the coastline, compensaton for the 11 workers killed, to clean the coastline, and for the reducton in
tourism.
A global consideraton may be the reducton in the number of fsh in the ocean, which would directly
impact fshermen around the world who use the oceans to fsh. Due to a large amount of oil not
Task 4a – Describe ethical concerns facing diferent communites
BP In Troubled Waters
By James Tilley
D eepwater Horizon was an ultra-
deepwater, dynamically positoned, semi-
submersible ofshore drilling rig built in 2001 in
South Korea by Hyundai Heavy Industries. In
September 2009, the rig drilled the deepest oil
well in history, at a depth of 10,683 meters.
On April 20th, a blowout caused an explosion
that killed 11 crewmen and ignited a freball
that could be witnessed 40 miles away. The fre
was never contained and two days later, on
April 22nd, the oil rig sank.
Corporate Social Responsibility is defned as a form of corporate self-regulaton, where a company
should consider social, ethical and environmental efects of its actvites on its staf and communites
around it.
One local ethical consideraton aaer the sinking of Deepwater would be the families of those who
died on board, were injured, or lost their jobs.
Another local issue would be the sharp reducton in tourism due to the coastline and the
surrounding oceans being polluted. The subsequent recovery of the waste of the coastline would
reduce and impact tourism for longer than the disaster took to clean up.
The locals around the US coastline reported sickness and headaches due to the polluton, however,
this cannot be confrmed, as there weren’t enough details to confrm this, and because the oil didn’t
get into their food or water supply.
A natonal issue may be the US’s fne of BP, in which they sued BP for around u10 billion for pollutng
the coastline, compensaton for the 11 workers killed, to clean the coastline, and for the reducton in
tourism.
A global consideraton may be the reducton in the number of fsh in the ocean, which would directly
impact fshermen around the world who use the oceans to fsh. Due to a large amount of oil not
