British Petroleum Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

British vegetable crude - Case Study ExampleColonialism, however, eventually fall flatd but BP did not (Heiss, 1997). Indeed, not further did BP survive the collapse of colonialism but it expanded its global operations, effectively maintained its status as one of the worlds top crude and gas multinationals. In recent years, however, BPs status was threatened by industrial accidents which, consequent to their detrimental environmental effects, turned public opinion against the company. Survival, evidenced in the fact that it did re-bounce, was predicated on the successful revamping of BPs image.With the dawn of the sensitive millennium, British Petroleums problems reached the point of crisis. Its environmental and human rights records were placed in the spotlight and subjected to public scrutiny, with the outcome be that in both 2001 and 2006, BP was named as one of the worlds worst corporations (Cameron, 2006). Allegations, the majority of which were substantiated and incontro vertibly factual, encompassed of BPs poor environmental record, its holler of its own employees, its support of totalitarian governments for its own financial gain and the exploitation of the publics dependency on oil and gas for the expansion of its profit margins.Accusations pertaining to abuse of its labour force focus on the Tex... gh price in 2005 when a large column overfilled with gas, leading to the formation of a vapour cloud and, eventually, an explosion which killed 15 employees, injured several others and destroyed a significant percentage of the plant itself. More independent and sexual investigations placed the blame squarely on BP, focusing on mismanagement and lack of regard for role player and environmental synthetic rubber as evidence in its failure to maintain the plant and implement the stripped required safety standards (Cameron, 2006).Prior to recovering from the Texas City Refinery Disaster, BP confronted an environmental disaster in Prudhoe bay, Alaska, fording the colony of its stocks there. In 2006, corrosion in its pipeline led to the spilling of 5,000 barrels of oil into the environment (Cameron, 2006). At this point, offend of, but not all of the pipeline was closed. In 2007, a second disaster forced the windup of much of the remaining operational sections of the pipeline. Again, the cause was cited as BPs failure to adequately invest in safety and maintenance. It is interesting to note that in 2006 BP admitted to the fact that it had contributed to the degradation of the Alaskan natural environment through seepages which number approximately 27,000 barrels of oil (BP, n.d.).The fallout of BPs seemingly callous attitude towards worker safety and the environment, were only exacerbated by its support of totalitarian and abusive governments for the purpose of maintaining corporate profits. In 2006, BP lost a typesetters case launched against it by Columbian farmers who accuse the company of supporting an openly abusive regi me for the purpose of maintaining its pipeline operations in the country. A similar accusation was made by the West Papua population which accused BP of