The Principles And Code Of Ethics Of British Petroleum

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British Petroleum William Knox founded British Petroleum in May 1908, as Anglo-Persian Oil Company. The Shah of Iran gave Mr. Knox permission to drill for Iran´s oil. In 1909 the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC) was incorporated and shares were sold to the public. The first chairman was Lord Stratchona, he also owned a minority shareholder. BP is a public limited company, their ownership is spread among the general public in many shares of stock, and these stocks are freely traded on a stock exchange. They have listings on the London Stock Exchange, which is their main stock exchange. Their stocks are also being traded on the New York Stock Exchange. London United Kingdom is the location of their main headquarters, but BP operates in over …show more content…
There are five main segments. BP´s code of conduct is their guide to do the right thing in business. It reflects a principle-based access, the rules are not stated absolutely and on a daily basis decisions are being guided by the values. The first one is safety, safe management of the environment and they are committed to safely deliver energy to the world. Secondly is respect, compliance with laws and regulations. Ethical standards and behave in a way that earn the trust of others, because in the oil business you depend on relationships. The third one is excellence, BP follow and uphold rules and standards set in the code of conduct. They commit to quality results and have a thirst to learn and improve. If they find out that something is not right, they will do their best to correct it. Courage is the fourth one, to achieve the best outcome and results often requires facing difficulties, speaking up and standing by what they believe in. Strive to always do the right thing and explore new ways of thinking and being unafraid to ask for help. Lastly is OneTeam, BP value teamwork more than individual performance. “Whatever the strength of the individual, we will accomplish more together.” By putting the team ahead of your own personal success and commit yourself to building on BP´s capabilities and trust in each other to deliver on our respective …show more content…
The disaster caused the life of 11 workers and more than 15 injuries. It is the largest environmental disaster in U.S. history. It started with an explosion on the 20th of April 2010, in the Gulf of Mexico. After burning for two days the rig sank two days later, which eventually lead to the enormous leakage of oil into the Gulf. The U.S. Government estimated the total discharge to be 4.9 million barrels of oil. It took 87 days to get the leakage under control, but reports from 2012 still reported of leakage from the rig. BP agreed to sign the largest corporate settlement in U.S. history, the total amount of the fines was estimated to be $18.7 billion. The total cost is estimated to be as much as $61.6 billion. This sum is based on all costs of the disastrous, from clean up to settlements with other business in the Gulf of Mexico. BP also claimed that they believe that additional future costs will not have a serious impact on their finances. The cause of this disaster was a wellhead blowout, which is an uncontrolled release of crude oil, this happens when the pressure control system fails. After the disaster several investigations blamed BP for this accident. Among the claims was that BP had taken drastic cost-cutting decisions, which might not be the direct reason. But it has been certainly an important factor in why the system failed and caused this tragedy. Not only did the oil spill

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