Human Factor Risk Quantification for Oil and Gas Drilling Operation

Abstract Many drilling incidents have been found relating to human factors, but currently there is not yet a special approach by which drilling safety professionals may rationally evaluate the actual human factor risk lever and accordingly select appropriate risk control measures for a given drilling process. This paper describes the study effort on creating and implementing a special method for drilling human factor risk evaluation based on quantifying the probability and severity values for 10 all-inclusive and mutually-exclusive human factor risks associated with 11 drilling activities. Data obtained through Delphi process indicated that the drilling activity with the highest human factor risk is borehole operation (risk value is 2.7475 S/w-h), and the highest human factor risk code is struck by object (risk value is 3.9171 S/w-h). The results of this study can be used in tracking exceptionally high risk periods during a given drilling process and assist the drilling safety professionals determine the focal points of the site safety effort in accordance with their limited resources. The present paper's study principles, methods and results will be supporting references to the human factor risk management on studies and practices in the drilling industry.