Improving situational awareness through the design of offshore installations

Maintaining the situational awareness of control room operators on offshore installations contributes to the timely diagnosis of conditions and making appropriate decisions. This is particularly important when dealing with events and incidents. Recent initiatives aimed at reducing operators’ exposure to the hazards of working on offshore installations may have a negative impact upon situational awareness within the control room environment.This paper discusses mitigation of the negative impact through the design and operation of the installation and control system; either by improving the general level of situational awareness or by specifically targeting the areas affected by these initiatives.

► Initiatives to reduce operator exposure to the hazards of working offshore can negatively affect situational awareness, as the operators are further removed from the immediate operating interface.
► These issues are mitigated within the design and operation of the installation and control system; either by improving the general level of situational awareness or by specifically targeting the areas affected by these initiatives.
► Further development of the control system, control room environment and control room operators’ role should seek to utilize technological progress with the aim of maintaining and enhancing situational awareness and in turn human performance.