Oil and Gas Engineering Course

Lesson 1 • Industry Structure and Value Chain

Maps upstream, midstream, and downstream segments and their interdependencies. Provides the organisational framework students use throughout all subsequent chapters.

Lesson 2 • Global Energy Landscape Overview

Examines oil and gas roles within the global energy mix and demand drivers. Establishes context for all downstream technical and commercial decisions covered in the course.

Lesson 3 • Regulatory and Safety Framework

Outlines the functional roles of regulatory bodies, licensing systems, and safety management principles. Students gain awareness of compliance obligations that govern all engineering activities.

Lesson 4 • Petroleum Geology Fundamentals

Introduces rock types, sedimentary basins, and trap mechanisms that control hydrocarbon accumulation. Grounds students in the geological logic behind exploration decisions.

Lesson 1 • Reservoir Rock and Fluid Properties

Quantifies porosity, permeability, and fluid saturations that control storage and flow capacity. These parameters feed directly into all reservoir modelling and production calculations.

Lesson 2 • Drive Mechanisms and Material Balance

Identifies natural drive mechanisms and applies material balance equations to estimate original hydrocarbons in place. Connects geological setting to expected recovery efficiency.

Lesson 3 • Pressure Testing and Well Analysis

Interprets pressure buildup and drawdown tests to determine reservoir permeability and skin. Provides diagnostic tools used in well management decisions covered in later chapters.

Lesson 4 • Fluid Flow in Porous Media

Applies Darcy's law and diffusivity equations to model single- and multiphase flow. Students use these equations as the mathematical backbone of well performance analysis.

Lesson 1 • Drilling Fluids and Hydraulics

Examines drilling fluid types, rheological properties, and hydraulic optimisation for hole cleaning and pressure control. Fluid design directly affects drilling efficiency and wellbore stability.

Lesson 2 • Well Planning and Design

Covers well objectives, trajectory design, and casing programme selection based on pore pressure and fracture gradient. Establishes the engineering blueprint used throughout drilling operations.

Lesson 3 • Well Control Principles

Teaches kick detection, shut-in procedures, and well kill methods to prevent blowouts. Well control competency is a mandatory safety requirement for all drilling personnel.

Lesson 4 • Drill String and Bit Technology

Analyses drill string components, weight on bit, and bit selection for different formation types. Students apply these concepts to optimise rate of penetration and reduce equipment failures.

Lesson 1 • Artificial Lift Systems

Evaluates ESP, gas lift, rod pump, and other lift methods for wells with insufficient natural flow energy. Students match lift system selection to reservoir and fluid conditions.

Lesson 2 • Well Integrity and Workover Operations

Addresses well integrity barriers, failure diagnosis, and workover planning to restore or maintain production. Builds on completion design to address the full well lifecycle.

Lesson 3 • Completion Design Fundamentals

Covers open-hole vs. cased-hole completions, perforation design, and completion fluid selection. Completion architecture determines long-term well productivity and intervention requirements.

Lesson 4 • Hydraulic Fracturing Design

Applies fracture mechanics and fluid rheology to design hydraulic fracture treatments for tight formations. Students link fracture geometry to expected production uplift using analytical models.

Lesson 1 • Multiphase Flow in Pipelines

Covers flow regimes, pressure drop correlations, and liquid holdup in multiphase pipeline systems. Provides the fluid mechanics basis for surface facility and flow assurance design.

Lesson 2 • Nodal Analysis and Well Performance

Uses inflow performance relationships and tubing performance curves to identify system bottlenecks. Nodal analysis is the primary diagnostic tool for production optimisation decisions.

Lesson 3 • Field Production Optimisation

Integrates well, network, and facility models to maximise field-level production within constraints. Students apply optimisation workflows used by production engineers in operating companies.

Lesson 4 • Flow Assurance Challenges

Identifies and mitigates hydrate, wax, asphaltene, and scale deposition risks in production systems. Flow assurance directly impacts facility uptime and production continuity.

Lesson 1 • Process Safety and Hazard Management

Applies HAZOP, layer of protection analysis, and relief system design to manage process hazards. Process safety competency is required for facility design and operations roles.

Lesson 2 • Wellhead and Manifold Systems

Covers wellhead equipment, Christmas tree configurations, and manifold design for gathering fluids. Establishes the surface interface between well completions and processing facilities.

Lesson 3 • Crude Oil Stabilisation and Export

Addresses crude stabilisation, desalting, metering, and pipeline or tanker export systems. Ensures product meets vapour pressure and salt content specifications for custody transfer.

Lesson 4 • Oil, Gas, and Water Separation

Applies phase separation principles to design two- and three-phase separators and degassers. Separation efficiency determines product quality and downstream processing requirements.

Lesson 1 • EOR Project Screening and Economics

Applies technical screening criteria and economic models to rank and select EOR projects. Integrates reservoir, facility, and financial inputs into a full EOR investment decision.

Lesson 2 • Thermal EOR Techniques

Examines steam injection, SAGD, and in-situ combustion for heavy oil and oil sands recovery. Thermal methods are the dominant EOR approach for viscous crude reservoirs.

Lesson 3 • Chemical EOR Methods

Evaluates polymer, surfactant, and alkaline flooding to improve sweep and reduce residual oil saturation. Chemical EOR requires careful reservoir screening and economic justification.

Lesson 4 • Gas Injection and Miscible Flooding

Covers CO2, hydrocarbon, and nitrogen injection for miscible and immiscible displacement. Students evaluate minimum miscibility pressure and gravity override effects on recovery.

Lesson 1 • Risk Management in Field Development

Identifies geological, technical, commercial, and regulatory risks and applies mitigation strategies. Risk management ensures robust FDP decisions across the range of possible outcomes.

Lesson 2 • Project Economics and Investment Decision

Applies NPV, IRR, and breakeven analysis to evaluate development investments under oil price uncertainty. Economic screening determines which development scenarios advance to sanction.

Lesson 3 • Development Scenario Optimisation

Compares well count, spacing, phasing, and facility sizing scenarios using production forecasts and economics. Students select the development concept that maximises value under uncertainty.

Lesson 4 • Integrated Reservoir Simulation

Applies numerical simulation to forecast production, pressure, and fluid contacts under different development strategies. Simulation outputs drive well count, facility sizing, and EOR timing decisions.