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Apex Oil spill

A. Summary of the Assignment

The assignment centred on the learnings of the Article Breaking Roberts rules: Consensus

building techniques for group decision. The Assignment was in essence a simulation of the

entire procedure of process consulting. Groups of seven were made and assigned one of the

following roles:

1. Assistant to Chief Minister 5.Environmental Defence representative

2. State Economic Development Director 6.Change Agent/Practitioner

3. State Environment Director 7.Observer

4. Petroleum Industry Representative

Brief Overview of the case assigned

An accident has occurred at Apex Oil Corporation where close to 4 million barrels of heavy

crude oil have spilled into the coastal waters due to underwater oil pipeline splitting open

and the subsequent delay by the technicians in raising an alarm The accident has had a very

adverse effect on the 100 miles of beaches and the coastal wildlife that exists in the area

with a large number of fishes, crabs and birds dying. Attempts to rescue these animals have

proved to be futile so far owing to oil ingestion. The backbone of the economies in the four

coastal areas, Fishing and Tourism have also suffered greatly with fishing activities banned

for 2 years and tourism volumes down by 90%.Additionally,All off shore oil production units

have been temporarily closed down adding to the burden on the economy. Apex Oil

Corporation has taken full responsibility for the event and has in a public statement taken

full responsibility of the cleanup operations and the financing of the animal rescue centres.

They have however refused to pay for the incidental expenses and also refused to come to

trial for the violation of the laws pertaining to the killing of endangered or threatened

species as instances of accidental killing did not come under the purview of the Law. Some

of the Locals have found employment in the cleanup operations. Various stakeholders arenow worried about the slow pace of Apexs cleanup and its alleged nefarious connections

with the CM. Additionally the Injunction by the State Environment Director is causing a lot

of financial loss to the state as under the terms of the injunction, the off shore Oil

production units will have to remain closed until the preliminary investigation report is

submitted which could take anything up to a year or longer

The Group met as a committee and had a discussion about the issue along the following

lines:

1. Fate of Off shore drilling operations in the state

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2. Future of Oil production in the state

3. Culpability and extent of accountability of Apex Oil Corporation when it came to bearing

all direct and indirect costs

Group Experience

The exercise began with all group members introducing themselves as the roles that they

had been allocated post which the Assistant to Chief Minister put forth the agenda of the

meeting. The meeting began with the discussion of the case facts. However as the

discussion progressed, a strong clique appeared to emerge in the form of the Assistant to

the CM, the State Environment Director and the Environmental Defence representative.

Also, the State Environment Director and the Environmental Director seemed to function as

a single team, reinforcing each others points. Despite the Change agents repeated efforts

the refusal of these two members to arrive at a solution that would be beneficial to most ofthe stakeholders, The meeting concluded without any concrete solution arising out of the

discussion