Oil and Gas Production Operations Training Course

Duration 10 days 20 modules · 65 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Production Engineers, Operations Supervisors and others
Fee from USD 2,200 KSh 190,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 9 Nov 2026 Course code SD-OG-019

Before you join: Participants should understand basic oil and gas terminology, including wells, separators, compressors, pumps, pressure, temperature and flow rates.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Oil and gas production teams must sustain safe, stable and profitable output while reservoir pressure declines, water production rises, equipment ages and operating constraints change. Decisions on choke settings, artificial lift, separation, water handling, maintenance priorities and shutdown recovery affect production volumes, barrier status, emissions and operating cost. Poor production surveillance can conceal well underperformance, process bottlenecks and integrity threats until losses become material.

This course develops the technical and operational judgement required to manage producing oil and gas assets. Participants examine the full production system, from reservoir inflow and well completion performance through artificial lift, gathering networks, separation, produced-water treatment, gas handling, export metering and shutdown systems. They apply nodal analysis, production allocation, well surveillance, operating envelopes, HAZOP principles, Bowtie barrier analysis, reliability-centred maintenance and production optimisation methods. The course also addresses flow assurance, scale, corrosion, sand production, emissions control, produced-water disposal, production accounting and field operating economics.

Instructor-led delivery combines focused technical briefings with field cases, production data interpretation, operating scenarios, group analysis and structured application planning. Participants work progressively on a realistic producing-asset case, using well and facility data to identify constraints, assess risks, set priorities and recommend actions. They leave with a completed production operating improvement plan, supported by surveillance, integrity, maintenance and performance-management documents that can be adapted for their own asset. The course is delivered over 10 days in a classroom in more than 50 cities or live online, with approximately 6.5 contact hours each day. Participants receive a certificate of completion.

The course suits engineers, supervisors and technical specialists who already work around producing assets and need stronger cross-functional command of production operations.

What you will be able to do

  • Interpret reservoir, well and facility data to diagnose production-system constraints
  • Apply nodal analysis to assess well deliverability and surface backpressure effects
  • Develop well surveillance plans using production trends, pressure data and operating limits
  • Evaluate artificial-lift performance and identify corrective operating actions
  • Prepare production allocation and deferment analyses for daily operational decisions
  • Use HAZOP and Bowtie methods to assess process hazards and barrier performance
  • Create reliability-centred maintenance priorities from equipment criticality and failure data
  • Present a production operating improvement plan for a producing field or facility

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Stronger judgement when diagnosing well and facility production losses
  • Practical methods for discussing constraints with reservoir, process and maintenance teams
  • Greater confidence interpreting daily production, pressure and water-cut trends
  • A structured basis for prioritising interventions, shutdown work and operating changes
  • A completed asset improvement plan suitable for discussion with line management

For your organisation

  • Earlier identification of avoidable production deferment and facility bottlenecks
  • Better alignment between operations, wells, maintenance and asset-integrity teams
  • More disciplined control of process safety barriers and operating envelopes
  • Improved prioritisation of work affecting availability, containment and production rates
  • Clearer production-performance reporting for field and asset management decisions

Course modules

20 modules over 10 days

Participants can define production-system boundaries, operating objectives and key daily performance measures.

  • Production-system boundaries from reservoir pore space to export custody transfer
  • Asset objectives balanced across rate, recovery, availability, safety and emissions
  • Daily production accounting definitions: gross, net, allocated and deferred volumes
  • Operating envelopes defined using pressure, temperature, rate and water-cut limits
  • Barrier management responsibilities under the three-lines-of-defence model
  • Shift handover records linking abnormal conditions, actions and outstanding risks

Participants can relate reservoir behaviour and inflow performance to production operating decisions.

  • Reservoir drive mechanisms and their effects on pressure-decline behaviour
  • Inflow performance relationships for oil, gas and water-producing wells
  • Productivity index calculated from stabilized rate and flowing-pressure data
  • Water breakthrough indicators from water-cut, salinity and pressure trends
  • Gas coning and water coning risk under aggressive drawdown
  • Material-balance concepts used to distinguish reservoir and equipment constraints

Participants can identify completion-related causes of impaired well performance.

  • Completion architecture: tubing, packers, safety valves, perforations and sand screens
  • Skin damage diagnosed from pressure-transient and production-test evidence
  • Perforation restrictions, scale deposition and fines migration effects
  • Tubing leaks indicated by annulus pressure and production anomalies
  • Downhole safety valve failures assessed through functional-test results
  • Sand production controls matched to formation strength and completion design

Participants can use nodal analysis to locate constraints between reservoir and export system.

  • Nodal analysis links inflow, tubing performance and surface backpressure
  • Select operating nodes at sandface, wellhead, manifold or separator
  • Tubing performance curves constructed from pressure losses and fluid properties
  • Choke-size changes evaluated against drawdown, erosion and downstream constraints
  • Backpressure sources traced through flowlines, separators, compressors and export systems
  • Operating-point shifts interpreted after reservoir, lift or facility changes

Participants can create a risk-based surveillance plan for producing wells.

  • Well surveillance objectives aligned with rate, integrity and recovery risks
  • Daily trend charts compare oil, gas, water, pressure and temperature
  • Production test validation identifies allocation errors and unstable conditions
  • Well test frequency selected using value, uncertainty and intervention risk
  • Diagnostic plots distinguish liquid loading, restrictions and declining inflow
  • Exception-based surveillance flags deviations from approved operating envelopes

Participants can assess artificial-lift performance and select practical corrective actions.

  • Artificial-lift selection considers fluid rate, depth, gas fraction and solids
  • Gas lift performance assessed through injection rate and valve behaviour
  • Electric submersible pump operating ranges interpreted from head-capacity curves
  • Rod-pump dynamometer cards identify fluid pound, gas interference and wear
  • Progressing cavity pump limits evaluated for viscosity, solids and elastomer compatibility
  • Lift optimisation balances incremental production against power, gas and intervention cost

Participants can diagnose flowline and manifold conditions affecting well and facility performance.

  • Multiphase flow regimes influence pressure drop, slugging and liquid handling
  • Flowline pressure losses estimated from elevation, friction and fluid composition
  • Manifold operating logic manages well routing, isolation and test separation
  • Slugging symptoms identified through separator levels, pressure swings and alarms
  • Pigging programmes address wax, liquids, debris and internal corrosion
  • Line-pack management reduces unstable rates during changing operating conditions

Participants can assess separator performance and respond to common oil-treatment problems.

  • Three-phase separation controlled through pressure, level, temperature and residence time
  • Separator sizing limits assessed against gas capacity, liquid handling and foam
  • Emulsion treatment adjusted using temperature, chemicals, mixing and retention
  • Interface control prevents oil carry-under and water carry-over losses
  • Crude stabilisation targets vapour pressure, export specification and safety
  • Troubleshooting uses level trends, samples, alarms and process-condition changes

Participants can identify gas-system constraints and operating risks in compression and export.

  • Gas composition affects compression duty, heating value and hydrocarbon dewpoint
  • Compressor maps define surge, choke and stable operating regions
  • Anti-surge control protects centrifugal compressors during rapid process changes
  • Suction scrubbers prevent liquid carry-over into compression equipment
  • Fuel gas, flare gas and export gas balances reconciled
  • Hydrocarbon dewpoint control prevents liquids in export pipelines

Participants can manage produced-water treatment and injection performance within operating limits.

  • Produced-water quality measured through oil-in-water, solids and salinity data
  • Hydrocyclone performance evaluated using pressure drop and oil-removal efficiency
  • Water-injection compatibility assessed for scaling, plugging and formation damage
  • Injection well surveillance tracks pressure, rate, injectivity and containment
  • Chemical treatment controls scale, corrosion, bacteria and oxygen ingress
  • Disposal and discharge requirements linked to permits and monitoring records

Participants can identify flow-assurance threats and specify relevant monitoring and treatment actions.

  • Hydrate risk assessed from pressure, temperature, water content and composition
  • Wax appearance temperature guides cooling limits and pigging frequency
  • Scale prediction identifies sulphate and carbonate deposition risks
  • Corrosion circuits defined by fluid chemistry, temperature and water wetting
  • Chemical injection assurance covers dosage, distribution, verification and stock control
  • Sampling plans preserve representative fluids for laboratory and field analysis

Participants can assess production measurement quality and prepare defensible allocation results.

  • Custody-transfer measurement principles address accuracy, traceability and uncertainty
  • Test separator data validated against pressures, levels and stable conditions
  • Allocation factors calculated from tests, meter data and approved methodologies
  • Mass-balance checks reconcile well, facility, flare and export volumes
  • Meter proving and calibration records support measurement-system confidence
  • Production deferment classified by well, facility, planned and unplanned causes

Participants can apply process safety methods to production operating scenarios.

  • HAZOP guidewords identify deviations in production and utility process systems
  • Bowtie diagrams connect threats, preventive barriers, consequences and recovery barriers
  • API RP 14C concepts define safety analysis for offshore production facilities
  • Permit-to-work controls manage simultaneous operations and energy isolation
  • Management of change assesses technical, procedural and competency impacts
  • Alarm management distinguishes operator response alarms from nuisance alarms

Participants can identify integrity threats and define appropriate inspection and response priorities.

  • Well integrity barriers assessed across tubing, annulus, packers and wellhead
  • Annulus pressure monitoring identifies sustained casing pressure and communication
  • Corrosion management uses circuits, inspection points, inhibitors and thickness data
  • Pressure equipment integrity considers design limits, inspection findings and degradation
  • Leak detection combines mass balance, pressure monitoring and field inspections
  • Integrity anomalies escalated through defined risk ranking and action tracking

Participants can prioritise maintenance work using criticality, failure evidence and production consequence.

  • Equipment criticality ranks safety, environmental, production and repair consequences
  • ISO 14224 failure-data taxonomy supports consistent equipment history analysis
  • Failure modes and effects analysis identifies controls for critical equipment
  • Reliability-centred maintenance selects preventive, predictive and run-to-failure tasks
  • Bad-actor analysis isolates recurring failures with high production deferment
  • Shutdown scopes prioritise statutory inspections, integrity work and production recovery

Participants can rank production optimisation opportunities using technical, economic and risk criteria.

  • Production potential compared with actual rates identifies controllable losses
  • Constraint registers distinguish reservoir, well, network, facility and commercial limits
  • Opportunity screening ranks rate gain, cost, risk, duration and dependencies
  • Choke optimisation considers drawdown, sand risk, water coning and facility capacity
  • Debottlenecking evaluates separator, compression, pumping and water-treatment capacities
  • Integrated production system models test interactions before operating changes

Participants can connect production operating decisions with value, cost and accountable performance measures.

  • Production value calculated from netback price, entitlement and operating cost
  • Deferred-production economics compare lost revenue, repair cost and recovery timing
  • Unit operating cost tracked per barrel of oil equivalent
  • Key performance indicators link availability, deferment, uptime and maintenance compliance
  • Daily production meetings use exception reports, action logs and escalation criteria
  • Weekly look-ahead plans coordinate wells, operations, maintenance and logistics

Participants can identify operational actions that reduce emissions, energy use and environmental exposure.

  • Methane emission sources include vents, fugitives, tanks and pneumatic devices
  • Flare minimisation addresses purge rates, recovery systems and upset prevention
  • Energy intensity tracked through fuel gas, power consumption and throughput
  • Vapour recovery units reduce tank emissions and hydrocarbon losses
  • Produced-water monitoring records discharge quality, treatment performance and excursions
  • Spill prevention controls secondary containment, drain segregation and inspection routines

Participants can structure safe responses to common production upsets, trips and restart conditions.

  • Cause-and-effect charts define trip initiators, shutdown actions and permissives
  • Emergency shutdown levels isolate hydrocarbon inventories and ignition sources
  • Trip response priorities protect people, containment, equipment and environmental receptors
  • Restart procedures verify barriers, line-up, permits and process readiness
  • Root cause analysis applies the five-whys method and causal-factor charting
  • Learning reviews convert incidents and near misses into operating controls

Participants can build, review and present a complete production operating improvement plan for a producing asset.

  • Asset data pack synthesised into well, facility, integrity and deferment findings
  • Constraint register prioritised using production impact, risk, cost and implementation time
  • Well surveillance plan specifies data, frequency, thresholds and accountable roles
  • Barrier assurance actions linked to HAZOP findings and Bowtie controls
  • Maintenance priorities justified through criticality, failure history and shutdown opportunities
  • Improvement plan presented with operating targets, actions, owners and review dates

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Production-system constraint register
  2. Risk-based well surveillance plan
  3. Artificial-lift performance assessment template
  4. Production allocation and deferment analysis worksheet
  5. Bowtie barrier assurance checklist
  6. Field production operating improvement plan

Who should attend

  • Production Engineers — improve well, network and facility performance decisions
  • Operations Supervisors — control daily production risks, constraints and work priorities
  • Field Operations Engineers — connect operating data with corrective field actions
  • Process Engineers — diagnose separation, compression and water-treatment bottlenecks
  • Maintenance Engineers — prioritise critical equipment reliability and shutdown work
  • Asset Integrity Engineers — manage corrosion, barriers and operating-envelope compliance

Skills and tools covered

Production surveillanceNodal analysisArtificial lift managementProcess safety barriersFacility performance optimisationMaintenance prioritisation

Tools and standards

HAZOP, Bowtie analysis, API RP 14C, ISO 14224

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short technical briefings followed by data-led case work drawn from producing oil and gas assets. Participants interpret well tests, production trends, pressure data, process diagrams, maintenance histories and incident scenarios. Group work applies nodal analysis, production allocation, HAZOP principles, Bowtie analysis and reliability methods to operating decisions. Simulations examine changing well, facility and shutdown conditions. Individual application planning connects each method to the participant's asset, role and current production issues.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should understand basic oil and gas terminology, including wells, separators, compressors, pumps, pressure, temperature and flow rates. Experience in production operations, process operations, maintenance, wells, facilities engineering or production engineering is expected. Participants should be comfortable reading simple process flow diagrams, trend charts and operating data. Prior exposure to reservoir engineering or process safety is useful but not essential. The course does not require advanced mathematics, programming ability, specialist simulation software or prior responsibility for a producing asset.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

Participants should have working familiarity with oil and gas production, wells, process facilities, maintenance or asset integrity. It is not intended as a first introduction to the oil and gas industry.

A laptop is useful for reviewing case data and completing planning documents, particularly for live online delivery. Participants may also bring non-confidential trend data, process diagrams or recurring operating issues from their own asset.

The course is best suited to production engineers, operations supervisors, process engineers, field engineers, maintenance engineers and integrity specialists. It is particularly useful for people moving into broader asset or field-production responsibilities.

Reservoir engineering courses concentrate on subsurface characterisation and recovery forecasting, while process design courses focus on facility design. This course concentrates on daily production operations, system constraints, operating risks and improvement decisions across wells and facilities.

Participants can use the surveillance plan, constraint register, deferment analysis and barrier checklist in daily production meetings and operating reviews. The final improvement plan provides a structured starting point for action with wells, operations, maintenance and integrity teams.

Each training day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides about 6.5 contact hours. The first part establishes production-system diagnosis and core operating methods; the later part applies them to safety, integrity, reliability, optimisation and the final capstone plan.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

Related courses in Oil & Gas