Risk perception and awareness of oil and natural gas safety among local populations in the eastern province of Jubail, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

The main goal of this research was to examine the residents' and Saudi Aramco employees' awareness of risks to public health and the environment as a result of their close proximity to oil and natural gas production facilities in Jubail Industrial City, Saudi Arabia. The research objective was to characterize social representations of industrial activities by different social actors in order to enhance public participation in the region's risk management plan. Social representation theory was adopted to understand the risk perception of members of the community, both residents and oil plus natural gas employees. Residents were represented by faculty and students at Jubail Technical College (n=42) and employees were selected from Saudi Aramco (SA) Oil Company Environmental Protection Department (EPD) (n=11). An original survey was used to determine factors associated with their risk perceptions with respect to environmental air, water, soil, and community well-being. Quantitative categorical data analysis and ordinal logistic regression were used to find relationships between measures of demographics, health, communication, oil and gas industry-related emergency situations, past experiences and risk perception.