“…the latest, and probably the best, of what one might call the “private sector” books about the BP spill…by a pair of talented and experienced Bloomberg reporters”
—Financial Times“Among the first to bring a book to the public are the Bloomberg News team of Stanley Reed and Alison Fitzgerald. Reed, based in London, had covered BP for more than a decade before the explosion. Fitzgerald is a Washington, D.C., correspondent ferreting out the political angles of corporate influence. The two journalists make a logical team, and their book is often enlightening about the corporate-political nexus that placed enrichment of the already rich and aggrandizement of the already influention above the common good. . . Reed and Fitzgerald personalize BP by devoting lots of space to John Browne, the flamboyant chief executive officer from 1995-2007. . . He is by far the most memorable character in the book.”
—USA Today
"In Too Deep is the story of a corporate culture gone wrong. Reed and Fitzgerald have dug deep and come up with a cautionary tale that is also a cracking good yarn."
—Evan Thomas, Contributing Editor, Newsweek "The touchstone account of the greatest environmental disaster of modern times. These seasoned reporters have produced a gripping, highly readable account of BP's corporate culture and how it led to the Gulf of Mexico disaster. In Too Deep is a brilliant piece of reporting and a serious work of political economy."
—Kai Bird, Pulitzer Prize–winning historian, coauthor, American Prometheus, and author, Crossing Mandelbaum Gate
"Stanley Reed is one of the most thoughtful and informed business journalists in the international community, and what's more, always a pleasure to read."
—Victor Navasky, publisher emeritus, The Nation, George T. Delacorte Professor, Columbia University
"A masterly job of taking the reader behind the scenes to understand how and why the Deepwater Horizon blew up and the role of BP in the disaster. Paced almost as swiftly as events unfolded, the book takes us from the floor of the Gulf to the boardrooms in London and Washington to the sands of the Middle East. Every person who has grieved for the workers lost in the explosion or felt a pang of horror at the volumes of crude spilled into the ocean will appreciate how skillfully the authors have explained the event. Truth turns out to be more exciting, and better reading, than fiction."
—Doron Levin, contributor, Fortune, and author, Behind the Wheel at Chrysler and Irreconcilable Differences
"From the macho world of offshore oil drilling to the rarified world of Wimbledon tennis matches and Mayfair drinks parties, In Too Deep brings a uniquely deep, trans-Atlantic perspective to the Gulf of Mexico tragedy. Reed and Fitzgerald have teamed up to produce what may become a classic case study of a corporate culture gone wrong."
—Julia Flynn Siler, author of the New York Times bestseller, The House of Mondavi, and the forthcoming Lost Kingdom
"Were this a work of fiction, readers would be spellbound. Since it's reality, In Too Deep is essential to demanding the truth from leaders at all levels in business, government, and everywhere else."
—John Hofmeister, former President, Shell Oil Company, and author, Why We Hate the Oil Companies
From the Back Cover
In 2005, fifteen workers were killed when BP's Texas City refinery exploded. In 2006, corroded pipes owned by BP led to an oil spill in Alaska. And then in 2010, eleven BP contract workers were killed in the Gulf of Mexico's Macondo well blowout. By the time it plugged the hole at the bottom of the Gulf, BP had become the biggest oil polluter in U.S. history, dwarfing the notorious Exxon Valdez, the oil tanker whose drunken captain ran his ship aground in Prince William Sound off Alaska. Some commentators—perhaps BP apologists—suggest this was bound to happen and BP was simply the unlucky company to which this disaster befell. But Stanley Reed, who has been covering the company for over ten years, and Alison Fitzgerald saw otherwise.
In In Too Deep, Reed and investigative reporter Fitzgerald show that there is likely a reason that it was a BP well that blew out, and not one that belonged to Exxon or Shell—and that the blame may lie in BP's culture of risk-taking and hard focus on financial results. That culture, they show, was created under former CEO John Browne, who reshaped the company during his twelve-year tenure and then was forced to resign in 2007. They reveal how Browne, while beloved by investors for his growth strategy that saw BP's stock rise, had built a company focused on acquisitions and cost cutting—cultural assets in some areas that ended up being cultural poison in the area of deepwater drilling. The story of how the Gulf disaster happened, and of the behind-the-scenes management of the company, is a fascinating object lesson that we will be learning from for decades.
In July 2010, BP successfully "killed" the company's damaged deepwater well. But the environmental fallout and public relations campaign to rebuild the brand are just beginning. In Too Deep details why BP suffered this disaster, why now, and what's next for the oil giant.
About the Author
STANLEY REED was London Bureau Chief of BusinessWeek from 1996–2010. He is a specialist on the Middle East and energy. He has covered BP for more than a decade and accompanied then-CEO John Browne on a trip to Russia in 2003. He also visited BP's Thunderhorse, the largest oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico, in 2009. He won the 2003 Best of Knight-Bagehot Award from the Columbia Journalism School for his coverage of the Iraq war. He is now a reporter-at-large for Bloomberg News.
ALISON FITZGERALD, an investigative reporter at Bloomberg News, writes about the convergence of government and economics in Washington, D.C. Her coverage of the financial crisis and government rescue of the banking industry won her the 2009 George W. Polk Award for national reporting and the "Best of the Best" award from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers. Her 2008 work on the global food crisis was honored by the Overseas Press Club.
