Getting to Grips with Human Factors in Drilling Operations
Authors: Thorogood J. L. , Lauche K. , Crichton M. , Pollard I. , Hviid L. B. , Verweijen B. 
Published: February 2016

Management

Since the events at Montara in late 2009 and Macondo in 2010, the exploration and production industry has undergone a substantial change in culture and regulation. However, investigations still tend to focus on technological and managerial deficiencies rather than probing deeper into the causes of human error. Nonetheless, there is a growing desire to understand human and organizational factors that influence potential process safety incidents during drilling and completion operations.

The topic of human factors as a contributor to well-control incidents was first discussed in 1992 by Paul Sonneman at an International Association of Drilling Contractors well-control conference in Houston (Sonneman 1992). The subject subsequently received attention from the UK Health and Safety Executive (Wilson and Stanton 2004), which assessed five human factors techniques relating to offshore personnel in combination with interviews of key personnel. Both of these studies were preceded by a 1990 analysis of the effect of human factors in stuck-pipe incidents in the US Gulf of Mexico.

More recently, the topic has forced its way firmly onto the agenda in the wake of the 2010 Macondo accident and as a result, industry organizations have published a number of relevant texts. In 2014, SPE published a white paper (SPE, 2014) covering a wide spectrum of human factors issues and made a number of recommendations to politicians and the industry at large.

The International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (OGP) published Report 460 (OGP 2012) on the cognitive issues relating to process safety, Report 501 (2014a) on recommendations for the implementation of training in nontechnical skills, and Report 502 (2014b), which proposed recommended practices for such training programs.

The Energy Institute in the UK published its guidance on crew resource management, which made the case for such training based on the experience in other high-hazard industries, such as aviation, rail, nuclear, and mining (Energy Institute 2014). The North Sea Offshore Authorities Forum (NSOAF) carried out a joint human and organizational survey of the factors relating to well-control preparedness (NSOAF 2013).

The common thread throughout all of these publications and activities is that they are directed toward a narrow audience of human factors specialists who are concerned with researching human-factors-related issues or setting up of training programs. However, there has been little attempt to communicate the central ideas to those who deal with the problems of human error in all its forms on a daily basis; in particular, the drilling operations community where, in the recent past, some of the major accidents have occurred.

To address this, SPE held a workshop titled “Getting to Grips with Human Factors on Drilling Operations” in London in October 2014 to define and clarify the underlying ideas about human factors related to the drilling community. The purpose of the workshop was primarily to expose ideas and engage with a more hands-on and operational audience of drilling operations professionals.

The main points from the presentations and ensuing discussions are summarized here and references are provided for further reading. Practical tools and insight that can be applied in day-to-day operations are also presented.