Spills and Spin—The Inside Story of BP

A gripping and eye-opening account of a corporation in crisis.
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In April 2010, the world watched in alarm as millions of barrels of crude oil began gushing into the Gulf of Mexico following a catastrophic explosion at BP's Macondo well. As spring turned to summer and the accident developed into one of the worst oil spills in history, alarm gave way to disbelief and anger. Why had this happened? Why was it taking so long to fix? And who was ultimately to blame? Tom Bergin, a former oil broker turned oil-industry reporter for Reuters, has been following BP's fortunes for almost two decades and he reported daily on the unfolding events of the 2010 spill. His unique access to key players within BP -- including former CEO Tony Hayward -- has enabled him to piece together the story of a corporation in crisis.
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Bergin sets the scene by taking us back nearly thirty years to explain how a company that was almost destroyed by privatisation and the oil-price crash of the late 1980s was able to re-emerge as a market leader by the turn of the twenty-first century. At the same time, he examines how crucial decisions made during this remarkable turnaround period paved the way for BP's darkest hour.

Tom Bergin is a former oil broker and a journalist who has reported on the energy industry for more than 12 years. For the past seven years he has headed Reuters's coverage of the oil industry in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, and his work has been published in the Globe and Mail, the International Herald Tribune, the New York Times, the Shanghai Daily, the Times, and the Wall Street Journal. He is a regular television and radio commentator, appearing on BBC, CNBC, and ITV.