Come clean
One of the world’s six “supermajor” oil companies, Chevron Corp. is ranked 11th in 2013 on the Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s largest companies.
With operations in 180 countries, Chevron has 64,600 employees. In the United States alone, it operates approximately 11,000 oil and natural gas wells across 4 million acres.
So, with all that expertise and resources, you have to wonder why the company didn’t respond quicker and better publicly to the recent gas well fire in Greene County.
Shortly after the fire broke out around 7 a.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 11, Chevron issued a statement regarding the incident, confirming that emergency response procedures had been initiated.
“Our primary concern is to contain the fire and ensure the safety of employees, contractors and the surrounding community. We will provide updates as more information becomes available,” the statement said.
However, those updates weren’t forthcoming, as Chevron officials scheduled a press conference for 1 p.m. but later canceled it without any further comment.
Chevron officials did release some information over the next several days about its efforts to control the fire, and word came on Sunday, Feb. 16, that the fire had been extinguished.
But Chevron still refused to confirm the identity of the missing worker even after friends and family members had held a vigil for him in his hometown of Warren, Pa.
It all led to some rather bizarre comments from Chevron on Monday, Feb. 17. State police said they couldn’t get to the site, because of safety concerns and therefore couldn’t verify the identity of the missing worker. They added that they had been given no indication from Chevron when they’d be able to access the site and complete the investigation.
Meanwhile, Chevron officials said they couldn’t comment on the status of the missing worker, maintaining it was a state police issue.
According to Chevron spokeswoman Lee Ann Wainwright, “This is a subject of an ongoing Pennsylvania state police investigation, and, out of respect for their jurisdiction, all questions regarding the missing person will be handled by them.”
So, Chevron knew state police couldn’t get to the scene to make a full investigation, yet they were insisting that only the state police could release information about the identity of the missing person.
Finally, on Wednesday, Feb. 19, more than a week after the incident, Chevron held a joint press conference with the state police to confirm that the missing worker was Ian McKee, 27, of Morgantown, W.Va., and he had died in the fire.
In the meantime, Chevron offered local residents a coupon for a free pizza and a 2-liter drink.
The offer was derided by some, and, although perhaps well intentioned, was not really what local residents wanted or needed.
Chevron should have sent a high-level executive to Greene County the day the fire happened, and that person should have held a press conference as soon as possible to answer any questions.
A town forum to address concerns of local residents would also have been advisable.
One can only wonder if Chevron’s underwhelming response was just a mistake or a sign that it’s not all that concerned about the residents here. Let’s hope it was just an oversight. But if anything of a similar nature ever happens again, Chevron has to realize it owes local residents a lot more than free pop and pizza.