Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Situation awareness and safety in offshore drill crews

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Cognition, Technology & Work Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In many industrial settings, the situation awareness (SA) of workers needs to be maintained at a high level to ensure the safety of their operation. This is particularly relevant to offshore oil-drilling and gas-drilling crews, given the interactive and hazardous nature of their work. This paper presents a review of SA in drilling incidents and results from interviews with oil and gas industry drilling personnel regarding SA in this environment. Accident analysis showed that most errors in SA (67%) occurred at the perceptual level, 20% occurred at comprehension, and 13% arose during projection. Interview findings concluded that isolation from events at home was perceived to be the largest contributory factor for reducing awareness, followed by fatigue and stress. Character change was the most cited indicator of reduced awareness, and communication was thought to be the best method of increasing awareness. Consistency, cohesion, adaptability, and trust were identified as requirements for good team SA.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Adams M, Tenney Y, Pew R (1995) Situation awareness and the cognitive management of complex systems. Hum Factors 37:85–104

    Google Scholar 

  • Atkinson J (1988) Coping with stress at work. Thorsons, Wellingborough

  • Baddeley A (1995) Attention: selection, awareness and control. Clarendon, Oxford

  • Baddeley A, Hitch G (1974) Working memory. In: Bower G (ed) The psychology of learning and motivation, vol 8. Academic, London

  • Banbury S, Tremblay S (eds) (2004) A cognitive approach to situation awareness. Ashgate, Aldershot

  • Banbury S, Dudfield H, Lodge M (2006) FASA: development and validation of a scale to measure factors affecting commercial airline pilot situation awareness. Int J Aviation Psychol (in press)

  • Cannon-Bowers J, Tannenbaum S, Salas E, Volpe C (1995) Defining competencies and establishing team training requirements. In: Guzzo R, Salas E (eds), Team effectiveness and decision-making in organizations. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, pp 333–380

    Google Scholar 

  • Clarke S, Cooper C (2004) Managing the risk of workplace stress. Routledge, London

  • Cullen W (1990) The public inquiry into the Piper Alpha disaster, vols I and II. HMSO, London

  • Doane SM, Sohn YW, Jodlowski MT (2004) Pilot ability to anticipate the consequences of flight actions as a function of expertise. Hum Factors 46(1):92–103

    Google Scholar 

  • Driskell J, Salas E (1996) Stress and human performance. LEA, Mahwah

  • Endsley M (1988) Situation awareness global assessment technique (SAGAT). In: Proceedings of the national aerospace and electronics conference (NAECON), New York

  • Endsley M (1995) Toward a theory of situation awareness in dynamic systems. Hum Factors 37:32–64

    Google Scholar 

  • Endsley M (2000) Theoretical underpinnings of situation awareness: a critical review. In: Endsley M, Garland D (eds) Situation awareness analysis and measurement. Lawrence Erlbaum, Mahwah pp 3–33

    Google Scholar 

  • Endsley M, Garland D (eds) (2000) Situation awareness analysis and measurement. Lawrence Erlbaum, Mahwah

  • Endsley M, Robertson M (2000) Training for situation awareness in individuals and teams. In: Endsley M, Garland D (eds) Situation awareness analysis and measurement. Lawrence Erlbaum, Mahwah pp 349–367

    Google Scholar 

  • ESSAI (2004) WP1 experimental validation. Workpackage report. ESSAI/DLR&Q_Q/WPR/WP5/2.0. EC DG-TREN. Contract no.:2000-GRD1-10450

  • Fire Service (2002) Manual 2. Fire service operations: incident command. HMSO, London

  • Fletcher G, Flin R, McGeorge P, Glavin R, Maran N, Patey R (2004) Rating non-technical skills: developing a behavioural marker system for use in anaesthesia. Cogn Technol Work 6:165–171

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Flin R, Salas E, Strub M, Martin L (eds) (1997) Decision making under stress. Ashgate, Aldershot

  • French H, Matthews M, Redden E (2004) Infantry situation awareness. In: Banbury S, Tremblay S (eds) A cognitive approach to situation awareness: theory and application. Ashgate, Aldershot

  • Gordon R, Mearns K, Flin R (2005) Designing and evaluating a human factors investigation tool (HFIT) to improve incident investigation. Safety Sci 43:147–171

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grech M, Horberry T (2002) Human error in maritime operations: situation awareness and accident reports. Paper presented at the human error, safety and system development conference, Newcastle, 17–18 June 2002

  • Gugerty L (1997) Situation awareness during driving: explicit and implicit knowledge in dynamic spatial memory. J Exp Psychol Appl 3:42–66

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hansen HL, Neilsen D, Frydenberg N (2002) Occupational accidents aboard merchant ships. Occup Environ Med 59:85–91

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hockey GRJ (1997) Compensatory control in the regulation of human performance under stress and high workload: a cognitive-energetical framework. Biol Psychol 45(1–3):73–93

    Google Scholar 

  • Hollnagel E (1993) Human reliability analysis: context and control. Academic, London

  • Hormann HJ, Banbury SP, Dudfield HJ, Lodge M, Soll H (2004) Effects of situation awareness training on flight crew performance. In: Banbury S, Tremblay S (eds), A cognitive approach to situation awareness: theory and application. Ashgate, Aldershot pp 213–232

    Google Scholar 

  • Hudson P, van der Graaf G (1998) “The Rule of Three”: situation awareness in hazardous situations. In: Proceedings of the Society of Petroleum Engineers international conference on health, safety and environment in oil and gas exploration and production. Richardson, SPE, Caracas

  • Jeannot E (2000) Situation awareness, synthesis of literature search. EEC Note (16/00). EUROCONTROL Experimental Centre, Bretigny-sur-Orge

  • Jones D, Endsley M (1996) Sources of situation awareness errors in aviation. Aviation Space Environ Med 67:507–512

    Google Scholar 

  • Jones E, Nisbett R (1972) The actor and the observer: divergent perceptions of the causes of the behavior. In: Jones E, Kanouse D, Kelley H, Nisbett R, Valins S, Wiener B (eds) Attribution: perceiving the causes of behavior. General Learning Press, Morristown, pp 79–94

    Google Scholar 

  • Kines P (2003) Case studies of occupational falls from heights: cognition and behavior in context. J Safety Res 34(3):263–271

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Klein G, Pliske R, Crandall B, Woods D (2005) Problem detection. Cogn Technol Work 7:14–28

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Klimoski R, Mohammed S (1994) Team mental model: construct or metaphor? J Manage 20:403–437

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Krause T (1997) The behavior-based safety process: managing involvement for an injury-free culture, 2nd edn. Wiley, New York

  • La Berge D (1995) Attentional processing: the brain’s art of mindfulness. Harvard University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • McGowan A, Banbury S (2004) Evaluating interruption-based techniques using embedded measures of driver anticipation. In: Banbury S, Tremblay S (eds) A cognitive approach to situation awareness. Ashgate, Aldershot

  • Mearns K, Whitaker S, Flin R (2003) Safety climate, safety management practice and safety performance in offshore environments. Safety Sci 41:641–680

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miller GA (1956) The magical number seven, plus or minus two: some limits on our capacity for processing information. Psychol Rev 63:81–97

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mumaw RJ, Roth EM, Vicente KJ, Burns CM (2000) There is more to monitoring a nuclear power plant than meets the eye. Hum Factors 42(1):36–55

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Connor P, Flin R (2003) Crew resource management for the offshore oil industry. Safety Sci 41:591–609

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • O’Dea A, Flin R (1998) Site management and safety leadership in the offshore oil and gas industry. Safety Sci 37:39–57

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Parkes K (1992) Mental health in the offshore oil industry: a comparative study of onshore and offshore employees. Psychol Med 22:997–1009

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Parkes K (1998) Psychosocial aspects of stress, health and safety on North Sea installations. Scand J Work Environ Health 24:321–333

    Google Scholar 

  • Partonen T, Magnusson A (eds) (2001) Seasonal affective disorder: practice and research. Oxford University Press, Oxford

  • Patrick J, Belton S (2003) What’s going on? Nucl Eng Int 36–40

  • Perrow C (1994) Normal accidents: living with high-risk technologies. Basic Books, New York

  • Poulton E (1978) Blue collar stressors. In: Cooper CL, Payne R (eds), Stress at work. Wiley, Chichester, pp 51–81

  • Prince C (2000) Guidelines for situation awareness training. Report: NAWCTSD/UCF/FAA Partnership for Aviation Team Training, Orlando

  • Reason J (1990) Human error. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Rousseau R, Tremblay S, Breton R (2004) Defining and modelling situation awareness: a critical review. In: Banbury S, Tremblay S (eds) A cognitive approach to situation awareness. Ashgate, Aldershot

  • Salas E, Prince C, Baker D, Shrestha L (1995) Situation awareness in team performance: implications for measurement and training. Hum Factors 37:123–136

    Google Scholar 

  • Salvendy G (ed) (2006) Handbook of human factors and ergonomics, 3rd edn. Wiley, New York

  • Sarter N, Woods D (1991) Situation awareness: a critical but ill-defined phenomenon. Int J Aviation Psychol 1:45–57

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shell International B.V. (2002) Incident classification, investigation and reporting. Issue 2.0, February. Internal document

  • Shiffrin R, Schneider W (1977) Controlled and automatic human information processing. II. Perceptual learning, automatic attending, and a general theory. Psychol Rev 84:127–190

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shrestha L, Prince C, Baker D, Salas E (1995) Understanding situation awareness: concepts, methods and training. Hum Technol Interact Complex Syst 7:45–83

    Google Scholar 

  • Shu Y, Furuta K (2005) An inference method of team situation awareness based on mutual awareness. Cogn Technol Work 7:272–287

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Simons D (2000) Attentional capture and inattentional blindness. Trends Cogn Sci 4:147–155

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith K, Hancock PA (1995) Situation awareness is adaptive, externally directed consciousness. Hum Factors 37(1):137–148

    Google Scholar 

  • Stanton N, Chambers P, Piggott J (2001) Situational awareness and safety. Safety Sci 39:189–204

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Strater O (2005) Cognition and safety. Ashgate, Aldershot

  • Strater L, Reynolds J, Faulkner L, Birch D, Hyatt J, Swetnam S, Endsley M (2004) PC-based tools to improve infantry situation awareness. In: Proceedings of the human factors and ergonomics society 48th annual meeting, New Orleans, 20–24 September 2004. HFES, Santa Monica

  • Styles E (2006) The psychology of attention. Psychology Press, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Sutherland V, Cooper C (1986) Man and accidents offshore: the costs of stress among workers on oil and gas rigs. Lloyd’s List/Dietsmann, London

  • Sutherland V, Cooper C (1996) Stress in the offshore oil and gas exploration and production industries: an organizational approach to stress control. Stress Med 12:27–34

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sutherland K, Flin R (1989) Stress at sea: a review of working conditions in the offshore oil and fishing industries. Work Stress 3:269–285

    Google Scholar 

  • Sutherland K, Flin R (1991) Psychosocial aspects of the offshore oil industry. In: Proceedings of the Society of Petroleum Engineers international conference on health, safety and environment in oil and gas exploration and production, The Hague. SPE, Richardson

  • Turner B, Pidgeon N (1997) Man-made disasters, 2nd edn. Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford

  • Tversky A, Kahneman D (1974) Judgment under uncertainty: heuristics and biases. Science 185:1124–1131

    Google Scholar 

  • Wallace JC, Chen G (2005) Development and validation of a work-specific measure of cognitive failure: implications for occupational safety. J Occup Organ Psychol 78:615–632

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang Y, Drews F, Westenskow D, Foresti S, Agutter J, Bermudez J, Blike G, Loeb R (2002) Effects of integrated graphical displays on situation awareness in anaesthesiology. Cogn Technol Work 4:82–90

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank all those drilling staff who gave up their valuable time to participate in the interviews. This research is sponsored by a studentship from Shell Exploration & Production (European ONEgas Asset). The views presented here are those of the authors and should not be taken to represent the position or policy of the funding body.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Anne Sneddon

    Present address: Ineos Manufacturing Scotland Limited, P.O. Box 21, Bo'ness Road, Grangemouth, FK3 9XH, UK

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Industrial Psychology Research Centre, School of Psychology, King’s College, University of Aberdeen, Old Aberdeen, AB24 2UB, UK

    Anne Sneddon, Kathryn Mearns & Rhona Flin

Authors
  1. Anne Sneddon
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Kathryn Mearns
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Rhona Flin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anne Sneddon.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Sneddon, A., Mearns, K. & Flin, R. Situation awareness and safety in offshore drill crews. Cogn Tech Work 8, 255–267 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10111-006-0040-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10111-006-0040-1

Keywords

Search

Navigation