Assessment of the Effectiveness of Medical Emergency Preparedness among Oil and Gas Platforms in the Niger Delta

Abstract

The need for effective Medical Emergency Preparedness (MEP) systems in an offshore facility is of great importance due to the high Health Safety and Environment (HSE) risks to Personnel on Board in the terrain. Despite the great strides recorded in Nigeria’s offshore oil and gas sector, little is known about the availability of a nationally constituted evaluation tool for offshore MEP systems in the oil and gas industry in Niger Delta. Hence, the call for a systematic national MEP framework based on the provisions of global best practices. This paper is aimed at assessing the effectiveness of the MEP framework of three selected offshore (jack up) oil and gas platforms in the Niger Delta. Data were obtained using a standard checklist and self-structured questionnaire and a purposive sampling technique adopted from a population of selected three jack up rigs operating in Niger Delta. The analysis was conducted using analysis of variance at 95% confidence interval. The effectiveness levels expressed as a function of numerical scores were used to carry out statistical comparative study to check for consistency in operability and quality. Results from the Welch robust test of equality of means showed to be significant (p < 0.05) for all 3 rigs. However, the pairwise post-analysis at 95% confidence interval showed that the mean difference between Rig1 and Rig2 were not significant (p-value = 0.352). But the other pairs (Rig1 versus Rig3 and Rig2 versus Rig3) showed considerable differences in their mean scores with p-values of 0.001 and 0.001, respectively. It is concluded that the rig’s functionality plays a role on the MEP system’s effectiveness of jack up platforms in the Niger Delta. Therefore, the study advocates for a robust and holistic substantial national assessment tool for oil and gas regulatory authorities for evaluating and monitoring MEP systems of various offshore companies.