Preview

Current Ethical Issues on Oil Spill

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1476 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Current Ethical Issues on Oil Spill
Today, with the continual and rapidly growing need of energy demand by big nations like United States and China continuing to furnish their domestic consumptions of oil have led to increased prices of gasoline whereby alternative forms of energy production are sought. With this in mind, offshore drilling can be a viable option for satiating the need of oil and also to boost the economy of the nation. In this report, I am going to discuss how the current Deepwater Horizon rig explosion has led to disastrous oil spill into the Gulf of Mexico causing environmental problems and also discuss how the oil spill if resolved and with safe and secure drilling techniques, the economic impact of offshore drilling can outweigh the environmental issues.
Concerning the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion on April 20, 2010, which escalated into a massive amount of oil spillage from the well reservoir as the oilrig sunk killing eleven crewmembers on board. The key players related to the rig explosion are British Petroleum (BP), Transocean, rig owner, and Halliburton. BP is one of the world 's largest energy companies, providing its customers with fuel for transportation, energy for heat and light, retail services and petrochemicals products for everyday items. (“BP at a glance,” 2010) Transocean, the world’s largest offshore drilling contractor and the owner of Deepwater Horizon rig, provides the most versatile fleet of mobile offshore drilling units to help clients find and develop oil and natural gas reserves. (“A Next Generation Driller is INNOVATIVE,” 2010) Halliburton, founded in 1919, is one of the world’s largest providers of products and services to the energy industry. With over 50,000 employees in approximately 70 countries, the company serves the upstream oil and gas industry throughout the life cycle of the reservoir - from locating hydrocarbons and managing geological data, to drilling and formation evaluation, well construction and completion, and optimizing production

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    First and foremost, British Petroleum oil company as well as” Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill”. It is one of the most terrible disaster that happened to humanity history. This is due the harm that it had in regards to humanity, environment and economy. The time line of the Deepwater horizon oil spill it was documented as the foulest oil spill in the US antiquity. On 20th April ,2010 the blast and the decrease of the Deepwater horizon oil rig at the Gulf of Mexico that has murdered 11 folks and 17 other was critically injured, underwater cameras observable the British petroleum pipe was dripping oil and gas to the ocean inner face about 42 miles off the coast.…

    • 670 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Safety is always an important factor when considering new methods for obtaining raw energy sources such as coal, oil, and natural and shale gas. The process of fracking can be considered relatively safe when compared to oil drilling and mining. For example, in 2010 an offshore drilling station suffered a malfunction in a blow back valve that caused a massive explosion killing 11 people and spilling an estimated 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico (Center for Biological Diversity, 2011). While the cost of lost lives is immeasurable, the costs of lost profits from the spilling oil, and the clean-up, are astronomical. The consequences of oil spills are not only immediate, but can also be felt for years after. Similar to the BP oil spill, in 1989 the Exxon Valdez ship ran aground spilling an estimated 750 thousand barrels of crude oil, an…

    • 2063 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Bp Oil Spill

    • 711 Words
    • 3 Pages

    BP dedicated a portion of its restoration website to highlight technological advancements it has implemented for safer oil drilling, in hope of restoring public trust in the company. This portion of the website, titled “Safer drilling”, explains what went wrong during the oil spill and the lessons BP has learned from the spill. One of the documents provided goes in-depth into the analysis of all the problems that occurred during the spill. An easy to understand graphic explains the eight different well integrity issues that caused the spill, and then explains how BP has changed its standard operations in response to these failings. The rest of document is broken into sub-sections that relate to each of these issues. For example, a section on oil spill containment is presented, which outlines the mobile “BP Global Deepwater Well Cap and Tooling Package” that BP created encase of other oil spill. The package can be deployed anywhere in the world within hours and provides all the necessary tools for capping a deep-water oil rig, and cleaning any oil spilled. This section of the website was created because it is essential in restoring public faith in the company’s ability to operate its daily…

    • 711 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The recent explosion, deaths, and environmental impact of the deepwater Horizon oil drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico brought the question of drilling platform safety to the forefront of the news, continuing to do so over two years later. The disaster is one of the more recent events and “is the largest marine oil spill in history” (Cleveland, 2013).…

    • 619 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Oil Pollution Act of 1990 was signed into law in August that year. It came about mostly because of the public response and concerns after the Exxon Valdez incident in which an oil tanker heading to port in Long Beach, CA ran aground in Prince Williams Sound, AK spilling up to an estimated 750,000 barrels of crude oil. Although ranking well down the list on the world’s largest oil spills for quantity dumped, the remote location of the spill made response and recovery extremely difficult. One of the key provisions of the OPA - §1002(a) Provides that the responsible party for a vessel or facility from which oil is discharged, or which poses a substantial threat of a discharge, is liable for: (1) certain specified damages resulting from the discharged oil; and (2) removal costs incurred in a…

    • 1526 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    With methods such as fracking being used to excavate the oil that is used today, damage done to the environment and different species of animals is inevitable with controversial methods. As an example of damage done to the environment, a very impactful incident which affected the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 was the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon. The Deepwater Horizon was an oil rig which exploded and caused massive damage among the surrounding…

    • 876 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Deepwater Horizon Disaster (also referred to as the BP oil spill, the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the BP oil disaster, or the Macondo blowout) occurred on April 20th 2010. Methane gas from the Macondo wellhead (that was being closed off) leaked up onto the drill rig and exploded, killing 11 people and starting the largest ocean toxicology experiment in the world.…

    • 149 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The BP Oil Spill is also known as “The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill” occurred in the Gulf of Mexico. Construction on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig commenced in Ulsan, South Korea, by Hyundai Heavy Industries Shipyard. On April 20, 2010, an explosion on the ridge occurred and fire on the BP-licensed Transocean drilling rig Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico resulted in eleven people being reported missing and approximately 17 injured. Sorrowly on the 23rd of April, the US coast guard suspended the search for the eleven missing workers, and all of them are presumed dead. On the 24th of April oil is discovered leaking from the well. The very next day the US coast guard underwater cameras report that the well is “leaking 1,000 barrels of crude…

    • 196 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The con list for offshore drilling just keeps going on to the fact that the oil companies don’t have a good way to clean up any spills. Just like the Exxon-Valdez oil spill, that happened over twenty years ago now, we still can’t stop the spread of oil in the ocean after the oil has been…

    • 1092 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    During this lifetime, we will not know the amount of damage and problems caused by the continuing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. When addressing the ethical concerns associated with off shore drilling, we must look at many different points of views. Although environmental groups have challenged off shore drilling since it became a practice, the federal government has allowed it. This is because the government values offshore drilling for economic reasons more than it values preserving the environment.…

    • 561 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The chemicals used in the drilling can be harmful to the environment, drilling itself poses a great danger, for instance in case of an oil spill (as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill showed), and as the Exxon Valdez disaster so evidently portrayed, transportation can be equally as devastating to the environment.…

    • 1226 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    On the 20th of April 2010, a tragic event occurred just off the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. British Petroleum’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded resulting in millions of gallons of crude oil to be spilled into the ocean. Previously the Exxon Valdez spill was considered the largest U.S. oil spill but was surpassed by the Deepwater Horizon spill within just a few days of the explosion. Due to poor…

    • 2007 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    BP Ecological Effect

    • 2739 Words
    • 11 Pages

    The BP oil spill, (also known as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill the BP oil disaster, the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, and the Macondo blowout) was an oil spill that happened in the Gulf of Mexico on the BP owned and operated Macondo Prospect on April 20, 2010. This oil spill is considered the largest and most devastating oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry. The cause of this oil spill according to “the U.S. government's September 2011 report pointed to defective cement on the well, faulting mostly BP, but also the well operator, Transocean, and the contractor, Halliburton.”(1) This caused an explosion that sank the entire…

    • 2739 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Hydraulic Fracturing

    • 1824 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Thousands of feet below the Earth’s surface, flows vast reservoirs of one of our planets most sought after commodities. In ancient Babylon there are writings of a dark elixir oozing from the lands surface, even then the people understood how precious this material was. Oil, along with Natural gas, are exceptionally rich sources of energy. A gallon of oil surpasses the output of five kg of coal, ten kg of wood, and over fifty times the amount of energy that fifty humans can produce. The richest oil can actually provide one hundred more times the energy, than the resources used to extract it from the ground. Currently the US is entering one of the largest modern oil booms the world has ever seen. Unfortunately unlike in ancient Babylon, oil today does not simply ooze out of the ground and into our cars. New advances in science and visualization technology have given us a process known as hydraulic fracturing. Also known as horizontal drilling, or fracking, these new techniques have caused a great controversy and sparked a public debate over the potential risks “fracking” could ensue on our environment. Despite the negative pictures environmental lobbyists have painted, hydraulic fracturing is essential for the future of America’s economy. Its main purpose is to create jobs, a stable market, and advance the future of clean energy in the United States.…

    • 1824 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Offshore Oil Drilling

    • 667 Words
    • 3 Pages

    On April 20th, 2010, an oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico. As a result, approximately 4.9 billion barrels of oil poured into the gulf over the course of 87 days. This tragedy resulted in lives lost, both human and animal alike, and really brought the issue of off-shore oil drilling to attention. While some may believe that offshore oil drilling may seem like a harmless source of revenue for the United States, it is imperative that citizens realize that drilling does more harm than good. America needs to consider the negative effects of offshore oil drilling on the environment, the economy, and the future.…

    • 667 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics