Emotional Vulnerability in Onshore Workers Supporting Offshore Operations: Psychosocial Risks in the Administrative Base

Abstract

Historically, mental health management in the Oil & Gas (O&G) industry has focused primarily on offshore workers due to the distinctive psychosocial risks associated with working at sea, such as isolation, confinement, extended shift rotations, exposure to hazardous environments, and the constant presence of high operational risk. This traditional focus has been reinforced by decades of research emphasizing the psychological strain imposed by offshore work conditions and has contributed to an implicit organizational assumption that onshore and administrative environments are comparatively less vulnerable from a psychosocial standpoint. However, the operational reality of the offshore industry reveals that continuous support for critical offshore activities—delivered predominantly from onshore administrative settings—requires high levels of cognitive demand, sustained attention, rapid decision-making under pressure, and constant adaptation to complex, uncertain, and often unpredictable operational scenarios. Administrative workers are frequently responsible for coordinating logistics, ensuring regulatory compliance, supporting drilling and production decisions, managing real-time operational contingencies, and interfacing across multiple stakeholders, time zones, and cultural contexts. These demands generate a distinct, yet often underestimated, psychosocial risk profile. Based on the analysis of approximately 200.000 individual psychological support interactions recorded since 2021 with workers in the offshore sector, this study aims to demonstrate that onshore administrative workers present significant levels of emotional and psychosocial vulnerability. The central finding indicates a moderate-risk prevalence of 12% among administrative workers, which is five percentage points higher than that observed among offshore workers (7%), challenging prevailing assumptions regarding the distribution of psychosocial risk within the industry. Onshore data indicate: (i) a high prevalence of anxiety (32%), stress (24%), and perceived loneliness (13%); (ii) the highest concentration of sustained strain in onshore drilling support teams, with 34% of cases classified as moderate risk; and (iii) the presence of critical-risk cases, although less frequent, with 1% classified as alert and 2% presenting suicidal ideation, requiring immediate care protocols and organizational escalation. These findings highlight a relevant gap in both academic literature and organizational practice by demonstrating that the onshore administrative workforce constitutes a psychosocial risk group that is frequently overlooked in traditional mental health strategies within the O&G sector. The quantitative and qualitative evidence reinforces the need for structured, preventive, and continuous corporate mental health programs tailored to this population, aligned with NR-01 requirements and the principles of ISO 45003.