BU Now » BP

Shake-up at BP

Jo Breiner — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 19:10:51 +0000

Just days before he will become BP’s new CEO, Bob Dudley has already begun to shake-up senior management. BP announced that upstream chief Andy Inglis will leave the company. In a statement, BP also announced that the company will create a safety division to “oversee and audit the company’s operations around the world.” Kenneth Freeman, Dean of the School of Management, gives his view on the shake-up and its impact on BP.

“As in personal relations, trust is more readily lost than regained in business. BP’s moves are vital first first steps.

“Incentives and rewards throughout the company will need to be closely aligned to drive the desired culture change. In particular, maintaining and asserting a consistent and emphatic message and tone at the top will spell the difference between success and failure in transforming and sustaining the desired culture.”

Contact Kenneth Freeman, 671-358-6170, kfreeman@bu.edu

Americans and oil

Dick Taffe — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 21:00:58 +0000

A new poll reports reports that Americans are “deeply concerned” about energy but “unwilling to pay higher gasoline prices to help develop new fuel sources.” Professor Cutler Cleveland, director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Studies, says this attitude defies our experience since 1970 as we’ve gone to war over oil, experienced major oil spills, suffered recessions triggered by oil price hikes, and watched the global political landscape be reshaped by energy issues. From his blog, The Energy Watch, he poses and asks a question — then offers a conclusion:

“How have American habits changed in light of these events? Here is what has happened from 1970 to 2007 in regards to our most oil-intensive activity: Percentage of people who commute alone in car, 25% increase; Number of miles driven per car, 23% increase; Percentage of households with three or more cars, 65% increase; Miles driven per household, 50% increase; Average size of household, 17% decrease.

“BP and government regulators must be held accountable for the Deepwater Horizon disaster. But make no mistake about it: the ultimate driving force behind our predicament is the American appetite for oil and our apparent unwillingness to change our behavior in the face of enormous human and environmental costs.”

Contact Cutler Cleveland, 617-353-3083, cutler@bu.edu

BP CEO hit at Congressional hearing

Dick Taffe — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 22:04:07 +0000

Members of Congress came down hard on BP CEO Tony Hayward (r.) as he testified about the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. But political science Professor Graham Wilson, author of “Business and Politics,” wondered why the spotlight over American’s worst-ever spill hasn’t shone on Transocean, BP’s partner in the Gulf of Mexico oil rig that exploded in April.

“How did Transocean get off the hook so easily? Aren’t they people who were drilling the well with MMS approval and weren’t they ones saying the rig was needed to quickly to drill another well?”

Contact Graham Wilson, 617-353-2540, gkwilson@bu.edu

How much is that spill?

Dick Taffe — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 17:36:34 +0000

The BP oil spill now has released at least 1.3 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion on June 15th. What’s that equivalent to? Professor Cutler Cleveland, director of the BU Center for Energy and Environmental Studies and editor of Encyclopedia of Earth” suggests some possibilities in his blog, “The Energy Watch.”

Years of energy used in a single average America home: 81,286

Number of miles that could be driven by a Prius: 3,085,600,000

Number of airplane round trips between London and Louisiana that could be taken by BP CEO Tony Hayward: 263,808

Hours of motor gasoline consumption for the entire United States: 3.9

Minutes of world energy use: 8

Contact Cutler Cleveland, 617-353-3083, cutler@bu.edu

BP faces Congress

Dick Taffe — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 16:16:56 +0000

It’s all BP all the time in Washington this week. After President Obama addresses the nation Wednesday on the BP oil spill situation, company executives on Thursday face a Congressional hearing on the matter. Visiting law Professor Elizabeth Nowicki, both a former SEC and Wall Street attorney, says BP CEO Tony Hayward would be well-served to remember what empirical research shows about the economic value of apologies.

“My advice to Hayward is to remember what behavioral research has shown: Corporations with senior management who willing and sincerely apologize are (a) less likely to get sued and (b) more likely to settle inevitable lawsuits more cheaply.”

Meantime, political science Prof. Graham Wilson, author of “Business and Politics,” wonders when other companies involved in the Deepwater Horizon disaster and its aftermath will be put in the spotlight that thus far has swamped BP.

“It will be interesting to see if the American companies involved, such as Transocean and Haliburton, are also asked to set aside funds [for clean-up]. Only eight of the people on the rig when the well failed were employed by BP.”

Contact Elizabeth Nowicki, 518-867-5355, enowicki@bu.edu; or Graham Wilson, 617-353-2540, gkwilson@bu.edu

BP tries (again) to plug leak

Dick Taffe — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 16:52:46 +0000

Embattled oil company BP is again trying to divert the six-week-old Gulf oil leak by smothering the gushing flow under yet another dome. Geology Professor Cutler Cleveland, director of the BU Center for Energy and Environmental Studies, has updated his entry on the Deepwater Horizon saga in the BU-born Encyclopedia of Earth to discuss the myth that this catastrophe is no different that the oil seeps that release large volumes of oil to the ocean naturally.

“The Deepwater Horizon site releases 3 to 12 times the oil per day compared to that released by natural seeps across the entire Gulf of Mexico … A sudden, concentrated and massive pulse of oil from an event such as the Deepwater Horizon disaster presents a fundamentally more acute stress to marine and coastal systems.”

Contact Cutler Cleveland, 617-353-3083, cutler@bu.edu

BU environmental expert on impact of oil spill

Kira Jastive — Thu, 27 May 2010 15:48:26 +0000

Cutler Cleveland, professor of Geography and Environment, lays out the short and long-term environmental effects of the BP oil spill.

Contact: Cutler Cleveland, 617-353-7552, cutler@bu.edu

BP tries “top kill” to stop Gulf leak

Dick Taffe — Wed, 26 May 2010 21:10:42 +0000

Though it’s never been tried before in such deep waters, BP started its “top kill” operation in an effort to plug the mile-deep leak that has been spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico in U.S. waters for five weeks since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded. Professor Cutler Cleveland, director of the BU Center for Energy and Environmental Studies, says the whole incident points a damning finger at Washington.

“The magnitude of failure of the federal government to protect the nation and the people of Louisiana grows with each passing day. From patronage between government regulators and the oil industry to shoddy environmental impact assessment, we have been supremely let down.”

For more on the oil spill, see the entry in the Encyclopedia of Earth, developed by BU researchers as a peer-reviewed Wikipedia-like source for authoritative environmental content.

Contact Cutler Cleveland, 617-353-3083, cutler@bu.edu

Gulf oil spill documented by BU researchers

Kira Jastive — Tue, 25 May 2010 15:05:40 +0000

Details of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill have now been documented, and will be updated, on the Encyclopedia of Earth, developed by Boston University under the guidance of Professor Cutler Cleveland, director of the BU Center for Energy and Environmental Studies, and fellow at the university’s Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer Range Future.

The entry, authored by Cleveland, details the explosion and fire, casualties and rescue efforts, magnitude, geographic spread, attempts to stop the leak, clean-up efforts, paying for the clean-up, ecological concerns, investigations, government response, and economic impact.

Contact: Cutler Cleveland, 617-353-3083, cutler@bu.edu