CSR News Stories

US: BP kicks back over 'fictitious' compensation pay-outs
BP is taking legal action to prevent administrators for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill compensation fund from paying out to people and companies that it said had suffered no damage.

US: Mixed messages for BP from Oil Spill Commission report
BP was able to take heart that the US government inquiry into the Gulf of Mexico disaster has concluded that it agrees with 90 percent of the company's own conclusions about the event. However, the company is still strongly criciticised, and others have been bitterly attacking the report for letting the company off too easily.

BP links staff bonuses to safety improvements
BP's new chief executive Bob Dudley has told employees that the only basis for judging performance in the coming quarter will be on progress made in reducing risk and raising safety standards. The message, which was announced in an email leaked to the Wall Street Journal, was the latest sign that the new regime at the company are working on improving its image.

US: Key companies quit climate change coalition
BP, Caterpillar and ConocoPhillips have said that they are to pull membership of the Climate Action Partnership - the group of companies that had been supporting President Obama's climate change legislation agenda. The companies said they would devote resources to furthering their business interests in other ways.

BP faces damages claim over pipeline through Colombian farmland
BP is being sued by a group of Colombian farmers who say that the company's activities have damaged their land and crops. The case, which is the first of its kind being brought in a UK court, alleges that the company's Colombian subsidiary has caused landslides and pollution to water supplies and soil.

US: BP challenges record fine for explosions in Texas
Oil giant BP has said that it will challenge a record fine of over $87m levied for failing to correct problems that led to the explosion in 2005 that killed 15 workers.

UK: Former BP CEO says market is failing on clean energy
Lord Browne, the former CEO of oil giant BP, has said that market mechanisms are falling well short of delivering the growth in renewable and clean energy that is required, and the government needs to intervene.

Greece: BP and Shell fined for anti-competitive behaviour
BP and Shell have been fined around 50m euros for price fixing, according to Greece's Competition Commission.
Investors called on to avoid tar fields
Investors have been urged to avoid controversial projects to extract oil from tar fields after evidence that the process creates up to eight times more carbon emissions than standard oil production, as well as bringing higher environmental costs in other areas such as water use.
BP named in Kazakhstan bribery lawsuit
Oil giant BP has been named in a major lawsuit over allegations of bribery involving government officials in Kazakhstan. Former CEO Lord Browne and current CEO Tony Hayward are also named in the suit.
US: Oil firms asked to justify record profits
Senior executives from five of the largest oil companies have been called upon to explain why they should continue to receive tax advantages when profits soared to unprecedented heights during the last year.
Russia: Police raid offices of BP joint venture
Police have raided the Moscow offices of BP and its joint venture TNK-BP without giving information currently on the reason for the search.
Alaska to sue BP over Prudhoe Bay accident
The state of Alaska is to sue BP to over the partial closure of the Prudhoe Bay oil field when its pipeline leaked in 2006.
Victims of BP explosion say $50m fine not enough
Lawyers for the families of victims of the explosion at a BP plant in Texas have said that the companies fine of $50m is too low, well within the range that the company might feel was "part of the ordinary cost of doing business".
Nigeria: Companies face fines for gas flaring
Oil companies operating in Nigeria have attacked government plans for start fining them for gas flaring as focusing on an unrealistic deadline and likely to cause immense economic damage.
BP fined for environmental crimes
BP has been fined $373m by the US government for a number of environmental crimes and fraud. The largest part of the levy relates to price manipulation of propane over which four BP workers were indicted.
BP under fire over safety culture
A new report has given the strongest criticism yet of the 'unsafe culture' at BP which led to the explosion in 2005 at a Texas refinery that killed 15 people.
Vodafone overtakes BP on Accountability rating
Vodafone has been ranked number one in the annual Accountability Rating - a benchmark that compares a range of companies against a number of accountability measures. The company, which has had troubled times financially, overtakes the oil giants BP and Shell, which become numbers two and three respectively.
BP knew of safety concerns according to US
US safety investigators have said that they believe that BP's global management team was aware of safety problems before the explosion took place last year.
US: BP savaged at Congress hearing
BP has been attacked for having policies "as rusty as its pipelines" at a US Congressional hearing into the partial closure of the Prudhoe Bay oil field.

The Business Respect email newsletter has been produced since 2001 to give news and commentary on CSR worldwide
See the archive of past issues
Special Feature
Social responsibility and finance - on the precipice
In a recent article, the BBC's economics editor Robert Peston highlighted the fact that in 2012 the chances are that the economy - punch drunk as it is from the various flavours of debt crisis it has been pummelled with over the course of the year - will be hit by the collapse of a major bank and / or government.
Currently most popular articles
AccountAbility hits back at 'untenable' standards board (14 Jan 2011)
Former Yukos executives to complain to human rights court (22 Mar 2006)
Arguments against corporate social responsibility - redoubled (26 Oct 2008)
Walmart targeted over labour practices at CJ Seafood (25 Jun 2012)
Japan: Tepco supplier exposed workers in Fukushima crisis (25 Jul 2012)


