Human Error At Oil Platform, Social and Technical Rites

The industry needs to investigate the cognitive maps to avoid mistakes in decision making as indicated in accidents in the oil industry. The observer position, the lack of systemic perspective, and the minimization of risks affect the level of attention and knowledge applied in performing routine tasks. This behavior is enhanced when it admits the stress of the external environment and rituals failed socialization in the workplace. The oil industry must be aware of the importance of human factors to avoid process losses (water, energy, materials, and accidents).

 In the case of oil exploration this situation is critical, the accidents have major impacts over the environment and society. The execution team consists of outsourced, the contracts are guided by price, and the not achievement of organizational performance (occupational and environmental aspects) performs the dance of the entity (registration), but keep the same workgroup and managers, all with low risk perception.

Although the fluid processing operations are simple, the risks are magnified by the high volume flow, high pressure and temperature, requiring additional care. Activities involving drainage boots three-phase separators, treaters and drainage of columns can lose efficiency based on the overall interface caused by the lack of attention from operators in manual control, if necessary. This output can generate flammable uncontrollably. The field services require high physical exertion, are repetitive, involve flammable, and increase the likelihood of an accident if there is bad weather in the natural environment (storm).

The social rituals at platform can be distinguished, it depends on moments experienced by personnel and contracted as:

• the waiting, loading and transport platform that can impact with noises on the mental map of group or individuals;
• routine activities which include services operations, process control, rest, and stress changes promoted by the natural environment, and the relationships
• the activities of risk, where the situation of excessive stress can cause cognitive failures,
• and, the output with the unloading, transport and arrived where, again, can be installed in advance, on the noise of mental map affecting the psychological quality of the individual, days before landing, turning it into a person with danger.

Some important items discussed in this paper are: the transportation preferences of their own staff and contracted; the differences in manager profile in the harmonization of teams on board; humanization and communication in the maximum stress (environmental or social); staring at the horizon and trends isolation; castes formed or castles with commitment and communication failures; problems in landing and entry into service; and the cumulative physical stress.

We conclude this text presenting questions about the loss that occurs with BP on the coast of Mexico and the potential of it happening in Brazil due to not studying human factors in the task of oil exploration.

Keywords: Oil Platform, Human error, failure assessment, social rites