British Petroleum and the BTC pipeline: Turkish delight or Russian roulette?
Q1. What are the main
ethical issues and dilemma BP faces in this case?
A
project of such magnitude has raised all sorts of concerns on the part of
campaigns and civil society groups :
1-
Significant environmental impacts through the disruption caused during the
building phase concerning the coating of the pipelines and the risks of
leakages, especially in Georgia, where oil spills might have impact the
country's strategic water resources.
2-
Concerns that the pipeline runs through earthquake zones and leakages could not
be possibly avoided.
3-
Prospective relocation of at least 30,000 civilians along the route of the
route of the pipeline during the construction phase.
4-
On the political level, with civil unrest and wars in the region, the pipeline
passed only within a few miles by the war torn area of Nagorno-Karabakh – the
project had always been accompanied by considerable fears of terrorist attacks.
5-
Countries that the pipeline is supposed to pass through had very high levels of
corruption and bureaucracy.
Q2. How would you
evaluate BP's approach to the social, environmental and economic impacts of the
project for local communities? Assess the approach from the perspective of
utilitarianism and deontology first. Will the assessment differ from the rights
and justice based perspective?
BP
has been a well-known company embracing sustainability and corporate social
responsibility (CSR) with regards to renewable energy, climate change, human
rights, and corruption prevention. BP sets up a "Regional Sustainability
Development Program (RSDP)" to proactively address critical social,
ethical and environmental issues:
1. Environmental Investment Programme aimed
at dealing with ecological issues.
2. Community Investment Programme with a budget of about $20m, mostly addressed social issues during the construction
phase.
3. Long term regional Development The initiative which has a similar budget of about $25m and designed to accompany
the project over a ten-year life span after its opening.
I think that the supportive program BP had submitted on the social, environmental, and economic level is theoretically
accepted and especially in the early stages of implementing the project, but BP
must focus more on the implementation process and the operation mechanism later
on, coordinating and following up the process of these programs efficiently and
transparently.
According to utilitarianism
perspective, an action is morally right if it results in the greatest amount of
good for the greatest amount of people affected by the action. So in this
situation and focusing solely on the great consequences of BP project we can
implement this theory successfully especially when evaluating the great results
from BP project on the economic development in countries that pipelines will
pass through.
According
to the Deontological perspective, '' An action
is considered morally good because of some characteristic of the action itself
and not because the product of the action is good. Deontological ethics holds
that at least some acts are morally obligatory regardless of their consequences
for human welfare''. (www.britannica.com). When applying this theory on
BP situation I believe that they took initiative steps leading to fairly
immediate impacts by proactively addressing social, ethical, and environmental
issues. From the Rights and Justice perspective, the company did address several
rights but was later on accused
of violating human rights and involved in different corrupted practices.
Q3. This case raises
questions about the scope of responsibility for a Western MNC operating in
environments with corruption and poor governance. What is your opinion on how
far a company such as BP in this case should go? Can they really be made
responsible for the actions of local officials and governments? Try to base
your answer on arguments derived from one or more ethical theories.
BP
operates in a world where there are different types of governments that have different levels of
efficiency, transparency, and corruption. It would be inappropriate to expect
that they should be made totally responsible for what governments do, because
it can never be completely their responsibility and in their full control. But
in this situation, BP must have a significant influence on the policies they work
with and related to their fields, while giving them no excuse working them out
in an unethical manner.
Q4. What is the appropriate way for BP to respond to its ongoing criticism? Base your answer on
the contemporary ethical theories, in particular, virtue ethics, discourse
ethics, and postmodern ethics.
BP
can emphasize the point that it has been one of the most socially responsible company, and implying that it would never go against the broader
social good or disturb the environmental balance.
They
should also defend themself by pointing that the BTC pipeline will generate high
and sustainable income for the countries, better employment opportunities, and help
in meeting people's demands. Also being a responsible organization, they should
let people know that it is taking all preventive
measures and procedures to avoid any disaster such as oil spillage or water
pollution.