DNV Consulting and the Norwegian Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) have co-operated to deliver a report called "Human Factors in Drilling and Well Operations – challenges, projects and activities".
Data from 2004 indicates that the number of well related events has been reduced for production drilling, but that the risk from the events has increased.
The report is made available on the PSA web site and summarises responses from the industry, and includes PSAs and DNVs own experience from investigations and inspection aimed at improving drilling and well operations.
Large risk potential
Drilling and well operations consist of complicated operations with a large risk potential for personnel as well as major accidents. "It is not sufficient to focus on improvement of technical solutions to reduce the risk potential. It is critical that a holistic approach is applied for defining solutions where human and organisational factors are taken into consideration. The challenge here is to address the consequences of interaction between humans, technology and organisations and identify the optimal operating methods," says DNV’s project manager Jan Erik Åsland. He worked with Nalini Suparamaniam and Stein Jernæs from DNV Consulting Stavanger on the report.