Situational Awareness in the Oilfield

Building situational awareness in oil and gas operations has always been vitally important. Without a strong foundation of situational awareness, there can be severe consequences. In fact, 88% of human error can be traced to a lack with situational awareness. Not just that, situational awareness can negatively affect oilfield operations and the ability to project future events.
 
Many offshore installations have the capacity to be hazardous and despite numerous rules and regulations in place to ensure that the risk of accident is kept to a minimum; accidents still occur. Having good situational awareness contributes towards the reduction of accidents. Situational awareness, or SA for short, is vital for when work being carried out is hazardous, or has the potential to be hazardous, as the workers must constantly monitor and evaluate conditions in an attempt to reduce accidents.

Situation awareness is critical for effective decision making. Without it, mistakes can occur with disastrous consequences. 
 
Accident statistics show us that a team can lose a shared awareness of a situation when it is vital to the safety of their operation. This is of course relevant to drill crews; due to the interactive and hazardous nature of their work.

Situational Awareness is made up of three (3) key elements.

Situation awareness is the perception of elements in the environment within a volume of time and space, the comprehension of their meaning and the projection of their status in the near future - Endsley 1988.

• Perception - What information can you see, hear and feel?
  
• Comprehension - stress on equipment, system status and the state of equipment at the pump station.
• Projection - What do you think will happen? Anticipating alarm overrides, changing equipment or watching for leaks.

 
In a nut-shell, situation awareness can support decision making and aid performance. In fact, situation awareness is key to good decision making and safe, efficient performance.
 
Although situation awareness seems relatively easy to comprehend, some people struggle with it. Specifically, 78% of people don’t get the information that is needed. 17% of people do not correctly understand the information they receive and 5% of people don’t project what will happen in future.
 
Situation awareness is important for many factors and is the responsibility of the entire crew. Between us, we can reduce the risk of accidents and ensure a safe working environment for everyone in the gas and oil industry.
 
For more information on how Accupoint Software can help improve your situational awareness, please contact us today.