Gives readers an inside look at the dangerous job of offshore oil rig workers. Additional features include a table of contents, a Fast Facts spread, critical-thinking questions, a phonetic glossary, an index, a selected bibliography, an introduction to the author, and sources for further research.

We couldn't get very far without oil rigs, both on and off shore, and the people who work there. Workers toil long hours, usually far from families and friends, to provide the fuel needed to power cars, planes, trains, and many other types of machines. Life on an offshore oil platform and the many kinds of jobs that keep it running smoothly and safely are explored through accessible text.

Describes why so many people choose to work in occupations that put their lives on the line.

People throughout the world use crude oil products in some form every day: the plastic bottles we drink from, the gasoline that powers our vehicles, and the desks we sit at in school and work. These are all things that make our lives easier. However, we might not have access to them without the hard work put in by oil rig workers. These men and women work on offshore oil rigs away from their friends and families for weeks at a time. Readers will learn about what it takes to become an oil rig worker, the different types of jobs available on an oil rig, and why these jobs are so important to modern society.

Since the 2010 Deepwater Horizon blowout and oil spill, efforts to improve safety in the offshore oil industry have resulted in the adoption of new technological controls, increased promotion of safety culture, and the adoption of new data collection systems to improve both safety and performance. As an essential element of a positive safety culture, operators and regulators are increasingly integrating strategies that empower workers to participate in process safety decisions that reduce hazards and improve safety. While the human factors of personal safety have been widely studied and widely adopted in many high-risk industries, process safety â€" the application of engineering, design, and operative practices to address major hazard concerns â€" is less well understood from a human factors perspective, particularly in the offshore oil industry. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine organized a workshop in January 2018 to explore best practices and lessons learned from other high-risk, high-reliability industries for the benefit of the research community and of citizens, industry practitioners, decision makers, and officials addressing safety in the offshore oil industry. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

The blowout of the Macondo well on April 20, 2010, led to enormous consequences for the individuals involved in the drilling operations, and for their families. Eleven workers on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig lost their lives and 16 others were seriously injured. There were also enormous consequences for the companies involved in the drilling operations, to the Gulf of Mexico environment, and to the economy of the region and beyond. The flow continued for nearly 3 months before the well could be completely killed, during which time, nearly 5 million barrels of oil spilled into the gulf. Macondo Well-Deepwater Horizon Blowout examines the causes of the blowout and provides a series of recommendations, for both the oil and gas industry and government regulators, intended to reduce the likelihood and impact of any future losses of well control during offshore drilling. According to this report, companies involved in offshore drilling should take a "system safety" approach to anticipating and managing possible dangers at every level of operation-from ensuring the integrity of wells to designing blowout preventers that function under all foreseeable conditions-in order to reduce the risk of another accident as catastrophic as the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill. In addition, an enhanced regulatory approach should combine strong industry safety goals with mandatory oversight at critical points during drilling operations. Macondo Well-Deepwater Horizon Blowout discusses ultimate responsibility and accountability for well integrity and safety of offshore equipment, formal system safety education and training of personnel engaged in offshore drilling, and guidelines that should be established so that well designs incorporate protection against the various credible risks associated with the drilling and abandonment process. This book will be of interest to professionals in the oil and gas industry, government decision makers, environmental advocacy groups, and others who seek an understanding of the processes involved in order to ensure safety in undertakings of this nature.

Economically and politically, North Sea oil very quickly became of vital importance to Britain. But very little serious attention was paid to the problems of the men working out on the rigs, and certainly none to their legal problems: they had been working in a kind of legal ‘no man’s land’. This informative and critical book, first published in 1977, represents a new and exciting approach to labour law looks closely at the way in which the law applies to workers out on the rigs and at the way it regulates the various aspects of their employment. More than that, it looks at the context in which the law is applied, a dynamic industry operating within severe physical, economic and political constraints, showing not only how the law came to be shaped, but also how its provisions are but one example of the employment process and which mirror changing moods and standards.