Using Human and Organizational Factors to Handle the Risk of a Major Accident in Integrated Operations

This chapter explores some of the human and organizational factors associated with the introduction of Integrated Operations (IO) in the oil and gas industry on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, which may increase the risk of a major accident. It deals with a short and general introduction to human and organizational factors and their influence on major accidents. The introduction of IO into a company can provoke significant changes in operational concepts, which in turn has an impact on human and organizational factors. J. Reason provided an excellent illustration of the point when he demonstrated how latent conditions contribute to organizational accidents; in particular the rare but often catastrophic events that can occur within complex modern technologies. T. O. Grotan and E. Albrechtsen provide an overview of anticipated organizational changes due to the introduction of IO and discuss the potential for it to have both negative and positive impacts on major accident risk using five different frameworks for organizational accidents.