AWARENESS OF OFFSHORE WORKERS IN SELECTED OIL AND GAS COMPANIES IN NIGER-DELTA, NIGERIA

Nwachuku C. I.^1±, Dosunmu A.L.², and Okoli J. U. ³

¹Centre for Occupational Health, Safety and Environment, University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria.

²Department of Petroleum Engineering, University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria.

³Offshore Technology Institute, University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria.

Accepted December 24, 2017

This study is an exploratory study aimed at assessing the level of fire safety awareness of workers in selected oil and gas companies operating within the Niger – Delta region of Nigeria. The population of this study consisted of workers from three International Oil and gas Companies (IOCs) and three National Oil and gas Companies (NOCs). Random and purposive sampling techniques were applied in data collection. The major instrument employed for effective data collection were questionnaires. The methodologies employed for data analyses were Kolmogorov-Smirnov (KS) distribution test, Normality test, and Kendal’s w-statistic with XLSTAT 2016 version 4.6 as computer statistical tool to aid in data analyses. The resultant output from the application of Kolmogorov-Smirnov (KS) distribution test presented different distributions but with slight resemblance in general safety culture between workers in IOCs and NOCs with respect fire safety on offshore platforms. In conclusion, Kendal’s w-statistic revealed a low level of awareness (< 50%) in general of all the sampled workers for IOCs and NOCs when it has to do with their general attitude to safety drills and onboard communication. It is therefore, recommended that, “facility-specific” training and retraining of different platform workers on the fire hazards peculiar to their job description should be done in a simple and understandable language fit for their level of education.

Key words: Assessment, Fire Safety, Offshore workers, Niger Delta, Kendall’s w-statistic.

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