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The Role of Effective Communication at Shift Handover: A Case Study of the

Oil and Gas Industry

Article · October 2016

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RESEARCH REPORT

The role of effective communication at shift handover: case

study of the oil and gas industry
Andrew Enya
Andrew Enya BSc MSc is a Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) Officer at Western
Engineering and Technical Service (WEATS) Nigeria Limited.
Address for correspondence: Andrew Enya, No 11 Unity lane off elitor street woji,
500211Port Harcourt, Nigeria.
Email: enyaandrew@yahoo.co.uk
Tel: +234 8039 7890 68

Conflict of interest
The author of this paper declares no conflict of interest.

Abstract
The research is aimed at establishing the role of effective communication as a
critical safety element at shift handover in the oil and gas industry. Shift
handover is a common system of work in the oil and gas industry, as most of
the organisations in the sector operate a shift work system. The objective is to
explore how effective communication is carried out in the oil and gas industry
at shift handover, the barriers associated with shift handover, shift handover
safety issues and ways of improving shift handover procedures. To achieve
these objectives, an online survey was conducted which received 41 responses
from, engineers, safety representatives, operations and production staffs.
The finding from the research has provided an insight into shift handover
procedure, effective communication methods used at shift handover, and the
type of document used for documentation at shift handover. Case studies were
used in order to elaborate on the research topic. Previous literature review of
companies’ success in the application of electronic shift logbook as an effective
communication and documentation method at shift handover and accident
reduction method was reviewed.
The goal of the research was to evaluate the role of effective communication as
a critical safety element at shift handover in the oil and gas industry. Results
from the questionnaire survey shows that effective communication is taken
seriously and is also regarded as a critical safety element at shift handover.
Keywords: shift handover, handover procedure, shift logbook, shift work.

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210 Effective communication at shift handover

1. Introduction
The oil and gas industry has been a major source of energy for decades for most
developing countries and the world at large. Companies in the industry operate either
in the upstream or downstream sectors. The upstream sector deals with activities in
the areas of production, drilling, exploration and storage, while the downstream sector
deals with sales, marketing, petrochemicals and refining. This research focuses on the
operation of the oil and gas industry in the upstream sector, which covers both
offshore and onshore facility operations.1 The operations of the oil and gas industry are
carried out mostly on a 24-hour basis in order to meet up production demands, this
leads to the adoption of shift work as a way of maintaining standards, competence and
ensuring that production demands and health and safety standards are met.
The oil and gas industry set high standards and priorities on health, safety and
environment based on their operations and business activities, when things go wrong
and incidents happen the outcome can be damage to property, injury or death of
personnel and possible impact on the environment.1 The concept of shift handover is a
major practice within the oil and gas industries as it involves long production, start
up and shut down times and the use of complex machineries and equipment which
make 24 hours shift operations effective. To prevent unwanted outcome from
incidents, shift handover procedures are developed for nearly all operational task based
on policies and guidelines of the company’s safety management system.1 These
procedures are tested and implemented to ensure shift handover is carried out
effectively and safely.
Shift handover is the transferring of responsibilities and tasks from one individual to
another or work team. This is the major work system used in the oil and gas industry.
The transfer of such responsibility takes place during a shift handover between shifts,
or between different activities of an organisation within a shift which involves
operations and maintenance staff.2 An effective shift handover consists of a period of
preparation by out-going personnel, handover where the outgoing personnel and
incoming personnel communicate and exchange task-relevant information, and the
cross-checking of information by incoming personnel as the assume responsibility for
the task.2 The aim of shift handover is for the reliable communication of task-relevant
information between shift changes, to ensure consistency of safe and effective working.
Shift handover is observed to be one of the most porous area of work where the
conditions of systems and process of an organisation is communicated to another
person within a very short time, which can lead to complications where one person
may not be available to clarify discrepancy and correct actions once they have left the
work premises. This gap in communication has led to many accidents in the oil and
gas industry.2

2. Effective communication at shift handover

One major cause of miscommunication during shift handover is the omission of key
information needed by incoming staff not being critically analysed and recorded.2 The
procedure of shift handover is affected by organisational principles which involve the
model of the review schedule, the information system and the organisational
standards.3 Communication is an essential element at shift handover, and the

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Andrew Enya 211

understanding of inner and outer principles that influence it,3 but personnel who are
threaten by interrupted communication plan by senior personnel will evade
confrontational communication and may not follow the standard procedure of shift
handover to maintain company standards and adhere to health and safety standards.3
In the oil and gas industry, production, operations and control room activities are
documented daily using shift logs. Shift logs are important during shift handover
process as it is the mechanism used to coordinate activities and share situation
awareness across shifts.4 It is observed that in the oil and gas industry, most accidents
happen after shift handover. Effective communication is therefore important. A
checklist is needed to improve the effectiveness of communication as this check-list
identifies information that needs to be communicated, adopt effective communication
skills and take out unnecessary information.4

2.1 Principles of shift handover

The principles of shift handover are those principles that must be taken into
consideration at shift handover and are set and implemented by safety management
team. The principles involve:
● Identification of higher risk handovers
● Emphasising the importance of good shift handover
● Providing written procedures for shift handover
● Ensuring a two-way handover takes place with both participants taking joint
responsibility
● Placing greater emphasis on both written and verbal communication
● Ensuring that where important information is transferred, a log or report sheets
should be available and used.4

2.2 Two-way communication shift handover

Two-way communication enables incoming workers to ask questions about things
they do not understand, in order for both parties to have a mutual understanding of
the handover.2 Shift handover is a task-guided interaction that takes place between
two or more persons, through interpersonal communication which requires a circular
rather than a linear pattern of interaction. In this case a person A communicates with
a person B, who in turn communicates with person A in a sequence known as
feedback.2 Evidence gained from experimental studies of social interaction in small
groups has shown that feedback guarantees communication at shift handover.3

2.3 Face-to-face shift handover

This handover enables gestures, eye contact, tones of voices, and other aspects of
personal communication to be used in conveying information.3 Face-to-face handover
is enhanced by backing it up with organised written materials. Face-to-face handovers
with written backup have been proven to minimise errors, compared to written
handovers with verbal communication filtered by a member of the management team.
Face-to-face styles of handover with written support are basic operation procedures in
many high risk domains.3

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212 Effective communication at shift handover

2.4 Case study of shift handover related accidents

Majority of the accidents in the oil and gas industry have been related to lack of
effective communication at shift handover, and most of the outcome of the accidents
involved loss of lives, property and environmental pollution.
The Piper Alpha offshore oil platform was located in the British sector of the North
Sea oil field and was operated by Occidental Petroleum and was engulfed by fire
which led to several explosions on 6 July 1988. This was as a result of failure in shift
handover.5 The incident resulted in 167 fatalities. The root cause of the incident was
found to be lack of knowledge by the incoming shift of details of a safety pressure
valve being removed and replaced by a blind flange, and the details of this
maintenance work not being communicated at shift handover, as there was no written
procedure in place for effective shift handover. In this case, the permit-to-work
(PTW) system was a contributory factor to the accident as it was not communicated
effectively leading to a PTW system failure. If there was an effective communication
at shift handover and the incoming shift was informed through a two-way or face-to-
face shift handover communication of the ongoing maintenance work, it would have
helped them to prevent the accident from happening as they would have been aware
of the present state of activities on the platform.5
On 23 March 2005 at a British Petroleum refinery installation in Texas City, a fire
explosion killed 15 people and injured about 170 people. The explosion happened
when an overflow occurred during start-up operations, creating a flammable vapour
cloud. Investigation into the incident reveal several root causes, comprising of failure
to log safety critical information coupled with an unofficial and poorly organised shift
handover procedure, which led to subsequent shifts not being informed of the earlier
shifts start-up actions. When the start-up process was resumed, the personnel in
charge of the shifts did not consider the previous shift progress as such progress was
not communicated effectively at shift handover, the lapses in communication from
poor PTW system that was not communicated effectively, contributed to the
flammable liquid overflow condition which resulted in an explosion.5
Effective communication at shift handover is one of the most critical safety elements
that can lead to incidents with high fatalities, but is not the only cause of oil and gas
disaster.
A pipefitter found himself exposed to toxic chemicals on 30 October 2002 at an
undisclosed oil facility, while he was replacing a section of pipe connected to a storage
tank. The personnel on the earlier night shift had prepared the tank partially for
maintenance and the state of the tank was poorly documented in the shift log. The
condition of the tank was not effectively communicated at shift handover and the
subsequent shift thought the tank was ready to be used. The lack of effective
communication of the condition of the tank to other shifts put the pipefitter at risk.
When he opened the pipe, he was exposed to toxic chemical and he lost consciousness
and fell from scaffolding onto a concrete pad. The PTW system in this case was
treated with low level of competency by the personnel involved as they failed to pass
vital information about the maintenance work, which would have been done by
effective implementation of the PTW system.6

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Andrew Enya 213

2.5 Barriers to effective communication at shift handover

Barriers to effective communication at shift handover are those conditions which
hinder effective handovers. Ineffective shift handovers occurs when information
necessary for adequate provision of information from outgoing personnel to incoming
personnel, on the conditions of working activities are not transferred at shift
handovers.7
In the oil and gas sector, the incidents from the case study have similar failure modes,
where incorrect and deficient communication of information continued from shift to
shift. The incidents were as a result of lack of effective communication of information
on maintenance operations which was in progress, but was not complete at shift
handover. Poorly conducted shift handover and poor logbook design are the two
obvious causes of lack of effective communication during shift handover, the problems
are slightly related to each other, and can have adverse effect.5
In the design of a logbook, the shift logbook suffers from various sets of setbacks.
Some of the logbooks are not well designed to provide easy understanding to the
operator on what to log and how to structure what is being keyed into the logbook.
Having knowledge of what information is most important to log, becomes a difficult
task for the operator if the operator is less experienced, but it is easier for the very
experienced operators. In the present industrial settings dominated by an increasing
number of inexperienced personnel, depending totally on an operator to know what to
report is an unnecessary risk.8
Shift handovers takes place most times without personnel making reference to the
logbook. In the event of such handover, everything is established on what the
outgoing operator can recall from his memory of the past 12 hours. This happens
when the operator is exhausted from a long shift, which makes his ability to recall
relevant information very challenging and stressful.5 The use of logbooks during shift
handover gives personnel the opportunity to crosscheck the logbook and find out
which key information that is lacking and is needed to be presented to incoming
personnel.5 In a situation where the logbook is not used and both the outgoing and
incoming personnel do not use the logbook, or crosscheck them correctly in order to
present complete and accurate report on the situation, the scenario can worsen by
virtue of time, pressure and ineffective communication skills.5

2.6 Role of effective communication during shift handover

For communication to be effective at shift handover, it must be a two-way-
interaction, where the outgoing personnel presents information using signs and
presentation style which the incoming personnel will understand easily.1 Basically the
incoming personnel ask questions about things they are not clear about, and in turn
the outgoing personnel answers and explains to their understanding. If the incoming
personnel are satisfied with the explanation and understand he nods in confirmation
and provides feedback to the outgoing personnel.
Failure in communication can arise from a number of reasons. The information
communicated maybe incomplete, or the person at the receiving end may have no
clear understanding of the information being communicated to them. Such a situation
occurs if the information is not presented clearly enough for the person at the

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214 Effective communication at shift handover

receiving end.1 The information passed across during communication should not be
miscommunicated by the parties involved. Face-to-face communication is commonly
the most efficient due to the fact that it allows prompt discussion.1

3. Methods

3.1 Data collection

Questionnaires were distributed through an online survey sent via email, as this was
the means of access available and based on the difficulty related with traveling
offshore and to various oil and gas installation for research purpose. An online survey
has the ability to guarantee anonymity, reach a larger population and provide truthful
feedback. Online surveys also come with low cost, faster response, interesting formats,
lesser unanswered questions and better response to open questions.9 The setbacks of an
online survey are the ability of it to have misleading wordings, lack of understanding
of instructions and numerous responses from a single source. It has a low response
rate; streamlined online population only, requires motivation and the problem of
confidentiality and anonymity.9 To resolve such issues, the survey was designed to
accept a single response from each source and written in a manner to avoid
misunderstanding.
The questionnaire consists of 23 structured multiple-choice questions, of which 20 are
close-ended and three are open-ended question giving respondent a chance to
comment about some answers they may chose. Multiple choice questions are simple
for respondent to answer, they are also easier to analyse and tabulate unlike open-
ended questions. These types of questions are very efficient in self-administered
conditions, as respondent cooperation is enhanced if a greater part of the questions are
structured.9

3.2 Data analysis

The questionnaire were analysed using computer based software, Microsoft excel and
IBM SPSS 21. The use of Microsoft Excel and IBM SPSS 21 is adequate and suitable
as it has capabilities for resident add-in utilities that are very beneficial for basic
statistical analysis and lots of statistical functions embed in their function utility.10
To understand what collected data means to the research, the coding of collected data
is followed by adequate interpretation. Suggestions by Saunders11 state that these
codes provide a structure that is relevant to research project for further organisation
and analysis of data. The topic arising from the code data is linked to the research
objective in a thematic analysis giving a framework with which findings will be
reported and discussed.

4. Results

4.1 Demographics
A total of 52 workers from the organisations took part in the survey 41 questionnaire
were returned by respondents and nine questionnaire were not returned within the
agreed time-frame, and efforts to reach the participants was not successful. However,
the survey achieved an overall response of 87% against a target of 60%. The targeted

J Health Saf Environ 2016, 32(3): 209-218

Andrew Enya 215

respondent were safety representatives, supervisors, engineers with safety

responsibility and the general workforce involved at shift handover procedure,
working in the oil and gas industry in Nigeria and the UAE. In spite of the
specification of the targeted respondent, the responses to the survey show a
combination of various departments of the respondents from production, operation,
safety and engineering.
The safety supervisors fell under the safety departments, while safety representatives
fell under production, operations and engineering department. In the engineering
department, some of the engineers also had safety responsibilities as they carry out
risk assessment for their jobs and perform other safety task. However, the 31.7% from
the safety departments stated that, they are appointed safety supervisors. The
respondents’ work status from the questionnaire shows that 34.1% are regular
employees, 29.3% are contract employee and 36.6% are management employee.
The questionnaire was sent to both offshore and onshore participants. A total of 28
workers made up the 70% of onshore participants while 13 workers accounted for
30% of offshore participants, as they indicated what operation their organisation is
involved in.
The respondents were asked to indicate their years of experience, to give an insight of
the knowledge and experience of the respondent, and better understanding for
analysis of the respondents’ years of experience on the survey subject.
14.6% of the respondents have industry experience of three years, and another 14.6%
an industry experience of five years. The highest level of industry experience was 16
years at 2.4% the rest of the percentage is distributed from 1 to 13 years industry
experience.
Table 4.1 shows a summary of the demographic characteristics of the questionnaire
respondents in the research study.

Table 4.1

The figure below illustrates respondents’ agreement to the fact that ineffective
handover can result in a bad outcome, capable of causing fatalities. 73.2% of the
respondents were of the ‘‘yes’’ opinion, 24.4% made up the ‘‘sometimes’’ opinion and
the remaining 2.4% went by the ‘‘all the time’’ opinion.

J Health Saf Environ 2016, 32(3): 209-218

216 Effective communication at shift handover

Figure 4.1. Ineffective handover outcome (Source: Author’s Illustration).

To identify the role of effective communication at shift handover, respondents were
asked if they feel effective communication at shift handover can prevent accidents.
41.5% of the respondents were of the opinion that ‘‘yes’’ it does, and 58.5% indicated
that ‘‘yes to an extent’’ effective communication at shift handover can prevent
accidents. The figure above shows the respondents choices of their answers and the
percentage.

Figure 4.2. How effective handover can prevent accident (Source: Author’s
Illustration).

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Andrew Enya 217

5. Conclusions
The findings of this research study has given an insight on how shift handover is
carried out in the oil and gas industry, the process involved at shift handover, the
consequences of lack of effective communication at shift handover, safety at shift
handover and the possible improvements of shift handover procedures.
Effective communication at shift handover has been identified as a critical safety
element at shift handover which can prevent accidents if implemented effectively.
From the case studies it was identified that lack of effective communication at shift
handover is a contributory factor to some major disasters in the oil and gas industry.
The finding from the research answers the question if lack of effective communication
at shift handover is a health and safety hazard. When shift handover procedures are
not followed effectively and vital safety information is not passed on effectively at shift
handover, the omission of such information can become a health and safety hazard at
shift handover. The role of effective communication is a critical safety element at shift
handover in the oil and gas industry but it is not the most critical safety element
because even with effective communication at shift handover, other factors like human
factors, management and technical failure can cause an accident. The Deepwater
Horizon incident was as a result of technical and management factors, because at shift
handover the problem was communicated effectively to the person taking over.12
There is need for improvement of shift handover procedure within the organisations
in the oil and gas sector, in order to prevent miscommunication at shift handover and
give clear understanding of the information that is communicated. Staff in the oil and
gas sector should receive regular training on effective shift handover procedures, for
them to have good understanding of the basic principles of shift handover.

Abbreviations
BP — British Petroleum
HSE — Health and Safety Executive
OGP — Oil and Gas Producers
PTW — Permit-to-work

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J Health Saf Environ 2016, 32(3): 209-218

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