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Rongrong Miao
Professor Kim Fortun
Sustainability Debate
2/3/15
1. Title, director and release year?
The Spill; Ben McCoy; 2010
2. What is the central argument or narrative of the film?
The film talks about several accidents caused by BP Company. Behind those accidents,
BP’s corporate culture and management leadership styles should be accountable.
Decades ago, BP grew from a small company to a world player. At the same time,
management in the company focused on being more competitive and making more
money. In order to achieve their goals, they employed cost cutting method and lost
sight of risks that might occur. From Texas City and Alaska to the Gulf of Mexico, BP
had caused environmental and ecological disasters, killing a great number of people.
Among these accidents, BP seemed reluctant to learn from these experience,
management were willing to sacrifice safety of workers to ensure no extra costs were
incurred.
3. How is the argument or narrative made and sustained? How much scientific
information is provided, for example? Does the film have emotional appeal?
The film starts with the scenes in the court of BP 2010 Mexican Gulf accident, and ends
with related scenes but provides more information. Basically, the narrative is made
around several locations where severe accidents happened, the Texas City, Alaska, and
the Gulf of Mexico. While introducing the accidents, the argument is sustained by
providing a series of facts related to the damage and analyzing reasons behind these.
By listing all facts, the film doesn’t have much emotional appeal, rather it lets audience
to really think about it and form their own opinions. At the beginning, it introduces the
history of BP Company, and then talks about the accidents behind the booming of the
company. In order to form the argument, the film provides audience with all relative
scientific information, including the theory behind the accident, how many people
were killed, and third party’s review and BP’s responses as well. Firstly it introduces
the Refinery Explosion on Mar 23 2005 in Texas City where a hydrocarbon vapor cloud
exploded killed 15 people, and over 170 people were injured. The film restored the
event by broadcasting a conversation between the 911 operator and the caller, and
then shows how it happened by pictures to promote the understanding of the
audience. When introducing the oil spill in Alaska, the film gives exact data of the total
gallons of oil spill, and tells audience the reason causing the accident was because the
pigging process had not been carried out for decades, and 90% of inspectors were
unqualified, who examined over 13,000 inspection points. By listing scientific data
here, the film managed to indirectly convey the idea of how awful the accident was,
and make people believe that BP management can risk at anything as long as they can
cut back costs.
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4. What stakeholders are described or portrayed in the film, what were their
experiences, and what kinds of decisions did they have to grapple with before,
during and in the aftermath of the disaster?
Internal Stakeholders Group
Company Management
Experiences
Decisions
Running the company;  Before: how much
some
disaster
are
to
invest
in
caused by cost cutting
business; how to
management culture
ensure security of
workers
 During: how to
solve the problem;
what’s the best
crisis management
technique;
 After:
how
to
response properly
to
the
public;
Should there be any
change made to
current
business
strategy
External Stakeholders Group
Contractor
Experiences
Decisions
Responsible for actual  Before:
consider
work in BP construction
what is a safe way to
sites
conduct the project;
evaluation
on
projects
 During: find out a
way to help against
the disaster
 After: decide what
part
of
responsibility
should be burdened
Provided
safety  Before:
consider
suggestions, evaluation
whether
current
of BP projects and
operation is safe;
business
operation
see what needs to
advice
be done to benefit
the company
 During: help fight
against
disaster;
Safety Consultant/Advisor
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
Society
Media has experience 
with reporting disasters


Government
Government
has 
experience dealing with
disasters, regulate and
communicate with the
company


find a possible way
to reduce losses
After:
provide
advice on what
should be paid
special attention to
prevent disaster
Before:
should
people trust this
company; what kind
of effect it has on
local community
During: what should
be done to reduce
individual loss
After: what rights
should
be
protected;
what
kind of subsidy
should be obtained
for remedy
Before:
decide
whether
government should
provide
any
privilege in order to
improve
oil
extracted in US
During: help reduce
negative influence
caused by disasters
After: what kind of
punishment should
be given
What parts of the film did you find most persuasive and compelling? Why?
The most persuasive part of the film in my eyes is the one that interviewed workers
and reporters regarding the company’s cost cutting policy. This is because if reported
in the perspective of management, who says to the public we are trying to cut back
costs because we want to make more profits, we would think very normal. In fact, no
enterprise in the world hopes to increase costs and lose money. But in the perspective
of these people, I realized that the downside of cutting costs is tremendous. It is
immoral to sacrifice safety to save money. In other words, these people are making
money based on people’s life. They were making break-even analysis by quantifying
5.
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people’s life to money. How many people could they lose to extend the useful life of
facilities and how much costs could be saved by doing so? It’s just too cruel to think in
this way, not to mention actually do so.
What parts of the film were you not compelled or convinced by? Why?
The part of the film that I’m not convinced is the interview with John Manzoni, the
head of refinery. When he was asked whether he paid attention to serious safety
problem when he visited Texas City, he said he had never been aware of. Although I’m
not favor of conspiracy, I still don’t believe John Manzoni’s answer. As the head of
refinery, I have reasons to believe that he has a lot of experience regarding refinery.
He should notice that something has gone wrong based on his knowledge. Thus, what
he was saying was just trying to escape from responsibilities.
6.
What audience does the film best address? Why?
I think the film best address to the public. This film intended to show the society what
the disasters were like by interviewing experts, employees, managers, etc. And tried
to explain the science behind these. Successfully, the film is good enough for the public
to understand the issue, and form their own independent opinions. Thus, they can
decide what to believe, and not simply led by the company or media.
7.
What could have been added to this film to enhance its educational value?
I think there could be some comparison between other oil extracting companies, such
as Exxon Mobile, and maybe those from other countries. By introducing the
experience in these company, the film could analyze why there’s no serious oil spill
problems, and what could be learned from these companies.
8.
What kinds of action and points of intervention are suggested by the film? If the
film itself does not suggest corrective action, describe actions that you can imagine
being effective.
I think this film took an independent perspective and tried to describe factual stuff and
itself does not suggest any corrective action. Personally, I believe government should
be more involved in the regulation of companies like BP, and not taking the position to
support that there is no safety issue, just like what Carol Browner did. And there can
be some restrictions on available refinery sites where the environment is fragile. In
addition, there should be more supervision on the work. External supervisors should
regularly evaluate safety issue of programs, and if they find anything suspicious, they
should immediately report to whoever in charge of this.
9.
What three points, details or references from the film did you follow up to learn
more? Write short descriptions of what you learn in your search, providing
citations.
 BP’s share price fell sharply after it was involved in large oil spills, and the
enormous total spill expenditure caused a significant drop of market value, as well
as the confidence of consumers, indicated by the drop in sales.
10.
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Reference: How the share prices of BP and Exxon have fared after big oil spills. (2010,
Jun 6). The Economist. Retrieved from: http://www.economist.com/node/16270972
 BP’s oil spill does not only have economic impact, but also influence on eco system.
Birds may lose their buoyancy and unable to regulate body temperature because
oil coated their feathers. Mammals could have ingested these oil which is certainly
harmful to their health. Creatures under the sea may also be affected as scientists
have found dead corals miles away. Also, fishery industry may be affected.
Reference: National Wildlife. (Retrieved on Feb 4 2015). How Does the BP Oil Spill
Impact Wildlife and Habitat? Retrieved from http://www.nwf.org/What-WeDo/Protect-Habitat/Gulf-Restoration/Oil-Spill/Effects-on-Wildlife.aspx
 Basically, deep water drilling means the operator drills into the sea from 20 to 400
feet in order to find gas or oil resources. The oil company usually hires a contractor
to drill wells offshore. Additionally, offshore rigs are built to enable workers to live
and work efficiently. As the drilling goes deeper, there’s greater natural pressure
from the earth, therefore, there’s a safety valves called blowout prevents “bop”
to prevent possibilities of uncontrollable eruption of oil or gas.
Reference: Diamond Offshore. (Retrieved on Feb 4 2015). Offshore Drilling Basics.
Retrieved from: http://www.diamondoffshore.com/offshore-drilling-basics