Staying in the zone: offshore drillers' situation awareness

The aim of this study was to identify the cognitive components required for offshore drillers to develop and maintain situation awareness (SA) while controlling subsea hydrocarbon wells.

SA issues are often identified as contributing factors to drilling incidents, most recently in the Deepwater Horizon blowout. Yet, there is a limited body of research investigating SA in the offshore drilling environment.

In the first study, critical incident interviews were conducted with 18 experienced drilling personnel. Transcripts were subjected to theory-driven thematic analysis, producing a preliminary cognitive framework of how drillers develop and maintain SA during well control. In the second study, 24 hr of observations (in vivo and video) of drillers managing a high fidelity well-control simulator were analyzed to further develop the framework.

The cognitive components that enable drillers to build up an understanding of what is happening in the wellbore and surrounding environment, to predict how this understanding may develop, were identified. These components included cue recognition, interpretation of information in conjunction with the current mental model, and projection through mental simulation. Factors such as distracters, expectations, and information sharing between crew members can both positively and negatively influence the drillers' SA.

The findings give a preliminary understanding into the components of drillers' SA, highlighting the importance of SA for safe and effective performance and indicating that Endsley's model of SA can be applied to drilling.

The results have consequences for training, task management, and work design recommendations.