Assessing the Human Factors Causes of Accidents in the Offshore Oil Industry

Abstract

Abstract In the past, industrial accidents were reported mainly in terms of technological malfunctions and the human element in accident causation tended to be ignored. Since the frequency of technological failures has diminished, the role of human error has become much more obvious. Preliminary investigations into the accident reporting forms used by some UKCS oil companies indicated that the human factor accident coding systems vary from company to company. The question which remains is: Do these systems adequately cover the human factor problems specific to the oil and gas industry? Data from both the oil industry and other industries regarding human factors causes of accidents should enable the development of a more comprehensive human factor coding category for accident reporting systems. The present paper briefly reviews the international accident research in various industrial settings such as the nuclear, mining, marine and oil industries. A compilation of the human factors causes of accidents from these source - forms the basis for the assessment of accident reporting systems used on oil and gas installations on the UKCS. A review of the current accident coding systems used by 30 offshore oil operating and contracting companies in the UK will be presented. From this review, further examples are given for a comprehensive human factors coding system for use in the oil industry. It is intended that human factors coding categories are used for accident reporting, safety training and for raising awareness of the human factors causes of accidents.