Risk perception by offshore oil personnel during bad weather conditions

This article presents the results of analyses of employee subjective risk assessments caused by platform movements on an offshore oil installation in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea. The results are based on a self-completion questionnaire survey conducted among 179 respondents covering three shifts on the platform. The data collection was carried out during the spring of 1994. A minority expressed worry due to platform movements. A greater proportion of the personnel stated worry about the construction of the platform. The personnel were more unsafe when they assessed their own safety attitudes with regard to specific potentially hazardous consequences of platform movements. Two approaches aimed at modeling worry and concern caused by platform movements were tested. The models were the mental imagery approach and the rationalistic approach. The rationalistic and mental imagery models fitted equally well. Implications of the results for risk communication are discussed.