The PR of the Black Blood of the Earth

Face it. The world economy to large degrees is driven by oil. With that in mind even the gigantic and catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is not going to stop people from driving their vehicles, taking business or vacation trips by plane, or ripping that oil based plastic product off that new toy for their child.

Chevron Canada is embarking on the deepest offshore oil drill in Canadian waters. Timing aside, I can't recall Chevron preemptively reassuring Canadians that they are taking every precaution possible to prevent a similar disaster occurring in Canadian Waters.

BP's PR response to the Gulf of Mexico spill gets mixed reviews as far as I am concerned because at first BP seemed very subtle and muted about the initial explosion and possibility of oil leaking. Only when the reality of thousands of liters of oil making its way to the shores of Louisiana and Mississippi became all to apparent did upper management for BP start to appear on TV and make statements to the press.

I'm sure Chevron is watching what is happening the Gulf of Mexico with keen eyes and ears and I would think that crisis management and communications materials are being drafted or at the very least being considered. I would like to see Chevron issuing news releases or statements talking plainly about the safety precautions they are taking to ensure a similar disaster doesn't happen in Canadian waters.

If the spill in the Gulf of Mexico is even more disastrous then the Exxon Valdez spill of 1989, then this is a chance not only for BP but all oil companies to right a PR wrong, and make the oil industry look less draconian and profit mad then I personally think the oil industry is.