Turning round the tanker: oil companies and corporate social responsibility

This article focuses on the conversion of oil companies to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), and their dialogue with charities after their reputations plummeted earlier in this decade, and traces this change in corporate culture and the restructuring of toil company operations to take into account CSR. The growing business for CSR consultants and ethical investment companies, the role of charities such as Oxfam in promoting CSR, the fact that most of the world major oil reserves are in countries with human rights problems, the potency of peer pressure, and the competitive disadvantages now attached to companies having a negative impact are discussed. It is questioned whether the cultural transformation is just another PR exercise, and the unbridgeable gap between environmentally friendly operations advocated by Greenpeace and oil company operations, and the CSR performance of the oil giants are considered. Details of the Nigerian experience, codes for companies, and the views of Greenpeace and Amnesty are given. (UK)