ASSESSMENT OF THE HUMAN FACTORS RESPONSIBLE FOR ACCIDENTS IN OIL AND GAS COMPANIES IN NIGER-DELTA

The study was conducted to assess the human factors responsible for accident causation in the oil and gas companies in the Niger Delta region. Human factors (HFs) were operationalized using personal level factors (PLF), management level factors (MLF) and National Level factors (NLF) while accident causation was conceptualized using rate of accidents (RA) and rate of incidents (RI). Cross-sectional and inferential designs were adopted and population comprised of field-workers of six sampled oil and gas companies in Niger-Delta from which 440 samples were obtained using Multi-stage sampling technique. Data were collected using questionnaire designed based on 5-point Likert and data analysis were done with descriptive statistics and regression model using XL-STAT version-20.1. The results of the descriptive statistics using weighted average (WA) revealed that human factors which include PLF. MLF and NLF are substantial accident causation factors with WA of 3.44. 3.18 and 3.09 > 3.00 respectively and there is high level of accident occurrence which includes RA and RI with WA of 3.92 and 3.99 respectively. The regression model analysis revealed that: there is positive and significant relationship between human factors and total accident prevalence in the oil and gas companies in the Niger-Delta (coefficient of determinant = 0.528, p-value = 0.000). The study concluded that human factors are substantial causalities of accident in oil and gas firms in Niger-Delta. The study recommended that Management of the oil and gas companies in this researched region should also be very intentional and also committed to designing and developing proper and flexible safety management practices such as safety training policies, safety awareness programs, safety rules and procedures etc. as such would also help workers to align with safety policies of the firms and by extension reduce accident occurrences.