Human Factors in the Oil and Gas Industry: Theory and Practice to Assess Risks and Manage Safety offers a timely and practical guide to understanding how safety is built into one of the world's most complex and high-risk industries. Combining theory and practice, this book shows how a Human Factors approach can help professionals move beyond simplified views of human error toward a deeper understanding of risk, performance, and resilience in complex sociotechnical systems. With a strong theoretical foundation and a clear operational focus, it equips readers to apply evolved safety concepts and practices to real challenges across offshore and onshore oil and gas activities.
The book explores the historical evolution and growing complexity of the O&G industry, the development of safety thinking from linear to systemic perspectives, and the central role of Human Factors in understanding workplaces, accidents, and organizational performance. It presents practical applications of non-linear methodologies such as FRAM, AcciMap, and CAST, alongside case studies involving major accidents and high-risk operations, including Deepwater Horizon, BP Texas City, tanker mooring, and FPSO operations. It also addresses non-technical skills, proposing an O&G Resource Management, the Human Factors Ecosystem concepts appliance, and real-world lessons drawn from professional practice, making the book conceptually robust and directly relevant to industry needs.
This book is written for Human Factors professionals, safety and process safety engineers, ergonomists, petroleum and chemical engineers, risk analysts, managers, researchers, and all practitioners seeking to strengthen safety and operational performance in the O&G industry through a more human-centered and systemic approach.
