Fatigue monitoring in offshore energy operations: Research to Practice gaps

Abstract

The oil and gas extraction (OGE) industry continues to experience an elevated fatality rate; from 2010-2014 fatality the rate in this industry was nearly seven times higher than that for all U.S. workers. OGE workers are exposed to intensive shift patterns and long work durations inherent in the OGE environment, which can lead to fatigue, thereby increasing risks of accidents and injuries. Fatigue, often defined as a physiological state of reduced mental or physical performance capability resulting from sleep loss, circadian phase, and workload, has been implicated as a critical risk in both offshore and onshore OGE operations. The aims of this study were to explore the effect of offshore shiftwork on physiological and subjective fatigue outcomes. 10 male workers (age: 31.3 (6.1) years; stature: 1.72 (0.1) m; weight: 85.24 (9.8) kg) were monitored throughout their daily shifts for six days using intrinsically safer physiological sensors (EQ02 LifeMonitor, EquivitalTM, Cambridge, UK) that recorded various physiological parameters at 250Hz and subjective fatigue scales were employed to obtain perceptions of fatigue. Results indicate that overall average ambulatory heart rate (an indicator of fatigue) were elevated for all participants and was highest and raised the most for those who started and ended their hitch on the day shift. The same measure was lowest and did not change for those who started on the day shift and swung to the night shift. The ambulation rates (a measure of movement) were higher later in the participants’ hitch and this effect was seen primarily for those who started their hitch in the day shift. Participants’ reports of fatigue were relatively high for acute fatigue and intershift recovery as well as for lack of effort and sleepiness; however, the physiological measures were not consistently or predictably correlated with the self-report measures of fatigue or activity. The study outcomes identified a critical gap in fatigue assessment in OGE operations; existing fatigue surveys for the general (or other) working populations are not comprehensive of OGE operations and are thus not applicable for OGE workers, nor are they validated against physiological fatigue outcomes in OGE workers.