Bp Oil Spill Response
The 2010 BP Oil Spill allowed about 5 million barrels of oil to flow into the Gulf of Mexico before the gush was capped. Unfortunately, the explosion killed 11 people and injured several others (Benoit, 2011). To claim its ultimate negligence and reduce the pollution of the spill, BP created a multi-page website entitled “Gulf of Mexico Restoration” to communicate its message to the public. BP’s “Gulf of Mexico Restoration” website uses these three strategies to repair its reputation: displaying different kinds of financial data on showing its significant recovery progress in affected areas; demonstrating its commitment to Gulf Coast accident by showing its official video and listing its claims information; and posting vivid pictures to show its recovery efforts on the region’s most vital industries-tourism and seafood. In responses aimed at mitigating the disaster, the Gulf of Mexico Restoration website displayed different kinds of financial data on showing its significant recovery progress in affected areas. For example, it points out that BP took 70 million personal hours and $14 billion on response and cleanup activities to make progress on the Gulf of Mexico, which shows BP has conducted a proactive and effective response to against pollution since they were approved the Shoreline Cleanup Completion Plan in November 2011 (BP Website). Then, the website shows its process of recovery by stating that BP completed 4,172 of the 4,376 shoreline miles in the area of removal action; moreover, BP lists the Shoreline Status through inserting the form of chart to illustrate the miles ground-survey since they started to cleanup, which demonstrates its determination to cleanup the oil spill and repair its reputation as soon as possible. Besides that, in order to support the long-term research in the Gulf of Mexico, website shows that BP will pay $500 million over 10 years to support the NRDA process, which makes publics realize that the company has extended
References: Benoit, P. (2011). The BP Oil Spill. New York: Children’s Press.
Freudenberg, W. R., &Gramling, R. (2011). Blowout in the Gulf: The BP oil spill disaster and the future of energy in America. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
BP Response Website, Gulf of Mexico Restoration (2013). Retrieved on April, 20. 2013. http://www.bp.com/sectionbodycopy.do?categoryId=41&contentId=7067505.