Safety and Situation Awareness in Offshore Crews

Abstract

Abstract Much work involved on offshore installations has the capacity to be hazardous, and despite many rules and regulations in place to ensure that accident risk is kept to a minimum, accidents still occur. One factor known in other industries (e.g. aviation) to contribute to the occurrence of accidents is a reduction in the ‘situation awareness’ (SA) of those concerned. Good SA is essential when work is potentially hazardous, as workers must accurately discern and monitor conditions if they are to reduce accidents. Accident analyses have shown that a team can lose their shared awareness of the situation when it is vital to the safety of their operation. This may be particularly relevant to drill crews given the interactive and hazardous nature of their work. In this way, lack of/reduced SA may be a predictor of the likelihood of an accident occurring. This paper presents a brief history of SA, an overview of the study, a preliminary review of an accident database, and results from interviews with onshore and offshore oil and gas industry personnel. Introduction One factor critical in preventing accidents in everyday life should be maintaining an adequate understanding of the current situation. This is needed in order to perceive the conditions of the environment, and judge the consequences of any actions taken in relation to the safety of the work, in order to avoid adverse events. By having full and correct understanding of the situation, the potential risk involved in an action can more effectively be gauged and in turn minimised, reducing the risk of an accident. However, if the understanding of the situation is impaired, then the ability to predict the outcomes of actions is more flawed, and due to this the risks of an accident occurring are increased. The method by which this understanding of a situation arises is known as Situation Awareness (SA), and the possession and maintenance of good quality SA is fundamental to safe working practice. This is of paramount importance in the offshore oil and gas industry where the work is hazardous and in many cases, complex, thus crews must be able to monitor and understand their environment if they are to keep their accident risk to a minimum. The theory of SA has been in existence for many years, stemming from research in the aviation industry. In the late 1980's, interest in the area grew and research became more widespread, including domains such as aircraft maintenance, the military, driving, and medicine (Adams, Tenney & Pew1; Endsley2,3; Shrestha, Prince, Baker & Salas4). However, with the exception of one article (Hudson & van der Graaf5) and a few industry documents (Shell Exploration and Production6,7), the concept has remained relatively uninvestigated in the oil and gas industry, despite its importance and relevance, and remains little understood. The aim of this paper is to initially establish the domain of SA in the offshore oil and gas industry: to discover how it is regarded, and the main underlying issues involved. Future work (currently being researched as a PhD thesis) aims to fully understand SA in offshore drill crews, with the hope of providing a means of maintaining and improving SA in the crews in an attempt to reduce accident risk. Situation Awareness: Definition The theory of situation awareness has been in existence for many years, with references to the concept believed to originate from the pilot community of World War I. Definitions of SA vary greatly, as they are explained in terms of the industry concerned, and as a result, understanding SA has been hampered since there is no one universally accepted and agreed upon definition of the concept (Sarter & Woods8).