The oil and gas industry has a major accident potential. This high-risk, high reliability sector relies on human cognition with advanced human-machine interfaces and remote, distributed teams conducting complex, high risk tasks. Since the Deepwater Horizon drilling disaster in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20th, 2010 there has been a surge in interest in human factors and non-technical skills as a way of improving safety and performance in the oil and gas industry.

A key non-technical skill for maintain safety and performance in drilling is Situation Awareness (SA). SA is essentially knowing what is going on around you and using that to anticipate how the situation might develop. Evidence from investigations into the Deepwater Horizon disaster, along with other high-profile drilling incidents (e.g. Montara and Petrobras P-36), highlighted the role that inaccurate SA played in these incidents.

This led to our research looking at drillers’ SA as a means of supporting safe and efficient operations, as sponsored by Maersk Drilling.

If you would like to discuss this research further please contact Dr Ruby Roberts.