Improving Safety Performance in Nigeria’s Oil and Gas Construction Industry: A Human Factors Engineering Approach

Background Safety performance in Nigeria’s oil and gas construction industry remains suboptimal, largely due to inadequate integration of human factors into safety management systems. Despite increasing attention to technical controls, limited empirical studies have examined how human factor engineering (HFE) influences workers’ behavior and organizational safety culture in this context. Methods This study employed a descriptive cross-sectional design involving skilled construction workers across upstream, midstream, and downstream sectors. Data were collected using structured questionnaires and analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) with IBM SPSS AMOS to evaluate relationships between human factors and safety culture. Results The findings demonstrate that human factors, including organizational, task, workplace, personal, and design elements, significantly influence organizational safety culture. Organizational and design factors showed the strongest positive effects, while personal and workplace factors exhibited comparatively weaker or negative influences, highlighting critical areas for targeted intervention. Conclusions The study provides empirical evidence that integrating human factor engineering into construction safety systems can significantly enhance safety performance in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector. It proposes a context-specific HFE framework and recommends strengthened regulatory oversight, improved contractor safety management systems, and targeted workforce capacity development to reduce incidents and improve safety outcomes.