Course Overview
This comprehensive professional development program is designed for Project managers who operate in the refinery industries, Gas plant managers, Oil production engineers, Field operators, Oil refineries managers, Gas plant technicians, All professionals interested in expanding their knowledge to oil and gas production, Battery operators, Technologists working in the oil and gas production field, Gas field operators, and Oil refineries operators responsible for implementing oil and gas production operations across pipeline network monitoring, gas-oil separation plant optimization, operator training simulation, and multi-organizational contexts. The program addresses proven practices in SCADA and PLC-based production monitoring and optimization, separator-condition optimization and liquid-recovery improvement, and high-fidelity GOSP simulation for operator training where a case study on SCADA for an oil-collecting pipeline network at Hassi Messaoud oilfield in Algeria showing how real-time monitoring of flow and pressure and temperature with PLC-SCADA integration allowed operators to optimize production routing and detect anomalies faster and improve overall network efficiency, a thermodynamic design study for gas condensate reservoir separators showing how a self-developed simulator determined optimized pressure and temperature and number of separators in order to obtain maximized tank liquid volume and minimized tank liquid density with the highest stock tank liquid calculated with the custom simulator in comparison to other simulators, and GSE Systems’ EnVision Gas Oil Separation Process simulation providing a real-time dynamic process simulation program used for operator training based upon a rigorous and high-fidelity mathematical process model including wellheads and manifolds and test and HP and MP and LP separators and electrostatic coalescer and three-stage gas compression and amine absorber and glycol dehydrator and glycol regenerator.
The curriculum integrates Safety and Environmental Issues and Health, Process Operations, Instrumentation and Control, Production Basic Trainings, Equipment Handling, Oil and Gas Production Process, Production Operations, and Production Overview to provide comprehensive coverage of oil and gas production principles, instrumentation and control methodologies, and GOSP and SCADA integration domains for achieving oil and gas production operator excellence.
Why This Course Is Required?
SCADA and PLC-based production monitoring and optimization represent critical competencies where a SCADA system for the Hassi Messaoud oilfield oil-collecting pipeline network used PLCs gathering data from field sensors on flow and pressure and temperature and sending it to a central SCADA server enabling real-time supervision and optimization of the network and improved leak detection and better operational decisions, directly reflecting the SCADA and instrumentation concepts covered in this course’s modules on instrumentation and control and production overview. Separator-condition optimization and liquid-recovery improvement demand specialized knowledge where the SCIRP thermodynamic design study confirmed that by considering the effect of both pressure and temperature in the optimum parameters including stock tank liquid volume and density the custom simulator gives the highest amount of liquid volume into the stock tank in comparison to other commercial simulators, and that by considering high amounts of produced fluid in the wellhead even a small difference in the predicted liquid volume becomes economically significant with 0.68 kmol/hr difference equivalent to 20 bbl per day or 36,500 bbl over five years at a value of over 1.4 million USD at 40 USD per barrel. High-fidelity GOSP simulation for operator training requires professionals with production operations expertise where GSE Systems’ EnVision simulation is a real-time dynamic process simulation program used for operator training based upon a rigorous and high-fidelity mathematical process model to provide a realistic dynamic response of a process unit, allowing trainees to practice startup and shutdown operations and normal operations and emergency shutdown operation and control exercises and troubleshooting and recovery from equipment and instrument and control valve malfunctions.
Oil and gas production operator professionals must master safety fundamentals including PPEs and basic safety measures and hazardous area identification and classification and H2S and golden rules in safety and working permits and system and emergency response and muster procedures and environmental protection and spill-prevention basics and toolbox talks and incident reporting, understand comprehensive process operations and instrumentation frameworks including pump operations and separator handling and valves and troubleshooting and heat exchangers and wellhead and manifold and gas and oil production processes and storage tanks and piping and instrumentation diagrams and compressors and flow diagrams and level and temperature monitoring using SCADA and PLC application in controlling production and basic and advanced instrumentation, and apply proper equipment handling and production operations methods including safety adherence and thermal equipment including furnaces and boilers and heat exchangers and centrifugal and positive displacement pumps and pressure vessels and columns and drums and reactors and gas detection and hydrates and chemical injection and metering and instrumentation and compression techniques and gas sweetening and mechanical refrigeration to ensure organizations achieve superior SCADA and PLC-based production monitoring and optimization, enhanced separator-condition optimization and liquid-recovery improvement, improved high-fidelity GOSP simulation preparation, and competitive advantage through continuous production surveillance and chemical injection management and process-trip response governance protocols.
Research demonstrates training is crucial for success, with Hassi Messaoud SCADA case showing production operators who can read trends and understand alarms and interpret flow and pressure data being better able to optimize production and detect leaks or restrictions early and coordinate with field crews with by covering flow diagrams and unit measurements and basic and advanced instrumentation and SCADA and PLC-based control course helping build those skills and speak confidently with both control-room and field teams, while separator-design study for gas-condensate reservoirs showing operators and engineers who understand phase behavior and vapor-liquid equilibrium and the impact of separator pressure and temperature on liquid recovery can materially improve plant yield with the course’s emphasis on basic chemistry and vapor equilibria and fluid-flow principles and heat transfer and separator operation building this understanding so professionals can contribute to optimization discussions, and GSE EnVision GOSP material explaining that operators who train on high-fidelity real-time dynamic simulations can practice startup and shutdown and emergency procedures and fault scenarios in a safe environment improving confidence and decision-making before working on the real plant.
Course Objectives
Upon successful completion, participants will have demonstrated mastery of:
- Equipping participants with the knowledge and ability to communicate effectively
- Educating on the basics of how various products of petroleum are formed
- Understanding the importance of hazardous selected area classification
- Learning how to operate in toxic environments
- Reading, analyzing, and interpreting instrumentation diagrams on piping and instruments
- Understanding the operations of a wellhead, manifold, gathering stations, and flow lines
- Operating important oil production equipment such as the three-phase separator and various pumps and different compressors and heat exchangers
- Teaching basic and advanced knowledge of fuel gas systems
- Illustrating the function of ESD systems found in a generic oil and gas simulator
- Teaching all required specifications for oil and gas export and produced water systems
- Giving basic knowledge on how SCADA systems are applied in oil and gas production
- Teaching water filtration, water injection, and de-aeration
Master oil and gas production operator excellence and drive GOSP optimization and production monitoring success. Enroll today to become a Certified Oil and Gas Production Operator Professional!
Training Methodology
This interactive Oil and Gas Production Operator Training program comprises the following training methods:
The training framework includes:
- Classroom sessions delivered by experienced professionals relevant in their domain
- Practical lessons and exercises with full participant engagement and role-plays
- Presentations, lectures, and videos to support course content
- Workshops developing SCADA trend interpretation and PLC control skills
- Hands-on exercises practicing separator operation and three-phase level control
- Practical demonstrations with simulator-based GOSP startup and shutdown and upset-handling scenarios
- Simulator and practical exercises demonstrating how production is handled in an oil and gas production plant
This immersive approach fosters practical skill development and real-world application of oil and gas production operator principles through comprehensive coverage of process operations and instrumentation and control and equipment handling domains with emphasis on measurable production optimization and safety improvement and liquid-recovery enhancement.
This program follows the Do-Review-Learn-Apply model, creating a structured learning journey that transforms traditional production operations into professional oil and gas production operator excellence.
Who Should Attend?
This Oil and Gas Production Operator Course is designed for:
- Project managers who operate in the refinery industries
- Gas plant managers
- Oil production engineers
- Field operators
- Oil refineries managers
- Gas plant technicians
- All professionals interested in expanding their knowledge to oil and gas production
- Battery operators
- Technologists working in the oil and gas production field
- Gas field operators
- Oil refineries operators
Organizational Benefits
Organizations implementing oil and gas production operator training will benefit through:
- Significantly enhanced SCADA and PLC-based production monitoring and optimization through comprehensive training delivering measurable returns where SCADA system for the Hassi Messaoud oilfield oil-collecting pipeline network enabled real-time supervision and optimization of the network and improved leak detection and better operational decisions with PLCs gathering data from field sensors on flow and pressure and temperature and sending it to a central SCADA server directly reflecting the SCADA and instrumentation concepts covered in course’s modules on instrumentation and control and production overview exactly what training teaches
- Better separator-condition optimization and liquid-recovery improvement through thermodynamic design study confirming that by considering the effect of both pressure and temperature simultaneously in the optimum parameters the custom simulator gives the highest amount of liquid volume into the stock tank in comparison to other commercial simulators including Aspen Plus and Aspen Hysys and PVTi and that the simulator can be coupled with other simulators for separator analysis with high accuracy, with the economic analysis showing a difference of only 0.68 kmol per hour being equivalent to 20 bbl per day and 36,500 bbl over five years worth over 1.4 million USD as organizational benefits highlighted in training
- Improved high-fidelity GOSP simulation preparation through GSE Systems’ EnVision simulation coming with a Learning Management System called SimAdmin that allows an instructor to register trainees and monitor their performance with the simulation available as standalone single or dual monitor and instructor-trainee versions and the tutorial having a built-in quiz and coming with a Learning Management System called TutAdmin allowing an instructor to register trainees and monitor their performance and quiz scores validating course content
- Strengthened competitive advantage through detailed risk assessment and evaluation of all oil and gas production fields and regular training of other employees by those who took the course and thorough review of legislation and regulation adherence and seamless running of oil and gas production processes and refineries by professionally trained employees and increase in organizational credibility due to well contained and managed risks and application of advanced tools to manage oil and gas production processes
Studies show that organizations implementing comprehensive oil and gas production operator training achieve significantly enhanced delivery outcomes as research confirms Hassi Messaoud SCADA case showing real-time monitoring of flow and pressure and temperature with PLC-SCADA integration allowing operators to optimize production routing and detect anomalies faster and improve overall network efficiency reinforcing course’s emphasis on SCADA and instrumentation and control and production overview modules, better organizational outcomes through separator optimization evidence demonstrating SCIRP study showing the self-developed simulator calculates the optimum pressure and temperature in a wide range of pressures and temperatures with the help of a simultaneous optimization algorithm in one stage with the highest stock tank liquid calculated in comparison to other simulators and the simulator being able to obtain optimum pressure and temperature and number of separators in gas condensate reservoir separators with any desired properties, and improved competitive positioning as high-fidelity GOSP simulation covers troubleshooting scenarios including hydrate formation and foaming and corrosion and compressor fouling and poor amine absorber performance and glycol system problems mirroring this course’s use of simulators and practical exercises to prepare operators for real-world production operations.
Empower your organization with oil and gas production operator expertise. Enroll your team today and see the transformation in GOSP optimization and production monitoring excellence!
Personal Benefits
Professionals implementing oil and gas production operator training will benefit through:
- Deeper understanding of SCADA-trend-and-alarm mastery and production-optimization contribution through Hassi Messaoud SCADA case showing production operators who can read trends and understand alarms and interpret flow and pressure data being better able to optimize production and detect leaks or restrictions early and coordinate with field crews with by covering flow diagrams and unit measurements and basic and advanced instrumentation and SCADA and PLC-based control course helping build those skills and speak confidently with both control-room and field teams
- Enhanced separator-phase-behavior mastery and liquid-recovery improvement capability through separator-design study for gas-condensate reservoirs showing operators and engineers who understand phase behavior and vapor-liquid equilibrium and the impact of separator pressure and temperature on liquid recovery can materially improve plant yield, with the course’s emphasis on basic chemistry and vapor equilibria and fluid-flow principles and heat transfer and separator operation building this understanding so professionals can contribute to optimization discussions instead of just following procedures
- Stronger GOSP-simulation mastery and real-plant-confidence development through GSE EnVision GOSP material explaining that operators who train on high-fidelity real-time dynamic simulations can practice startup and shutdown and emergency procedures and fault scenarios in a safe environment improving confidence and decision-making before working on the real plant, with the course’s mix of classroom teaching and practical exercises providing similar exposure and improving ability to interpret process behavior and respond to upsets and operate complex production systems safely
- Advanced expertise in oil and gas production principles, GOSP and SCADA integration methodologies, and process operations domains
- Enhanced career prospects and marketability in oil and gas production operations, refinery management, gas plant engineering, and field operations sectors with professionals gaining skills in separator operation, SCADA monitoring, chemical injection, and gas conditioning
- Comprehensive and detailed understanding of safety including rules and protection and prevention and fire extinction and specified instructions in regard to oil and gas production processes
- Increased knowledge of various production units and equipment operation and equipment identification and follow-up
- Ability to identify operator tasks and take up responsibilities and manage a production site effectively.
Course Outline
Module 1: Safety, Environmental issues, and Health
- PPEs (personal protective equipment)
- Basic safety measures
- Hazardous area identification and classification
- Hydrogen sulphide (H2S)
- Golden rules in safety
- Working permits and system
- Emergency response and muster procedures on production sites
- Environmental protection and spill‑prevention basics
- Toolbox talks and safety meeting practices
- Incident reporting and near‑miss culture
Module 2: Process Operations
- Pumps operations
- Separator handling and best practices
- Valves and troubleshooting techniques
- Heat exchangers and how to handle them
- Wellhead
- Manifold
- Gas and oil production processes
- Storage tanks facilitation and handling
- Piping and instrumentation diagrams
- Compressors
- Start‑up, shutdown, and normal‑operation checklists
- Typical process upsets and basic troubleshooting steps
- Three‑phase separator operating principles and level/interface control
- ESD system function and operator response during process trips
Module 3: Instrumentation and Control
- Flow diagrams
- Level
- Temperature monitoring using SCADA system
- PLC application in controlling production
- Unit measurements
- Basic and advanced instrumentation
- Pressure monitoring and control
- Key control loop types in production (flow, level, pressure, temperature)
- Reading and using trends and alarms for early problem detection
- Calibration checks and basic loop troubleshooting
- Using SCADA historian data for production optimisation
Module 4: Production Basic Trainings
- Basic Chemistry notations
- Reactions in Chemistry and what they represent
- Advance vapor equilibria notions and principles
- Fluid flow principles and laws
- Heat transmission techniques
- Physical parameters analysis and monitoring
- Phase behaviour of reservoir and produced fluids
- Simple material and energy balance ideas for operators
- Effect of separator pressure and temperature on liquid recovery
- Hydrocarbon dew point and hydrate formation basics
Module 5: Equipment Handling
- Safety adherence in production plants
- Thermal equipment such as furnaces, boilers, and heat exchangers
- Centrifugal
- Positive displacement in centrifugal pumps
- Steam turbines
- Electric motors
- Pressure vessels description and operation
- Columns
- Drums
- Reactors
- Routine inspection rounds and condition‑monitoring checks
- Basic symptoms of equipment malfunction and when to escalate
- Isolation and de-isolation procedures (LOTO/LOTOTO)
- Preventive and corrective maintenance roles of the operator
Module 6: Oil and Gas Production Process
- Equipment control in the field
- Safety of all the equipment in use
- Operational conditions
- Procedures to follow when handling machines
- Process
- Feeds
- Production characteristics
- Typical field process flow from wellhead to export
- Optimising production rates while staying within operating limits
- Produced water handling, treatment, and disposal basics
- Gas conditioning and dehydration (glycol systems) overview
Module 7: Production Operations
- Gas detection
- Hydrates
- Chemical injection process and methodology
- Metering and instrumentation
- Line heaters
- Process drawing techniques
- Pumping mechanism and methods
- Routine well and facility surveillance (rates, pressures, temperatures)
- Reporting and handover practices between shifts
- Water injection and de‑aeration system basics
- Chemical injection selection and dosing principles
Module 8: Production Overview
- Compression techniques
- Gas sweetening
- How to enforce safety
- Mechanical refrigeration
- Why are SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) systems very important?
- Equipment
- Leather gloves
- Hard hat
- Protective footwear
- Safety glasses
- Basic product‑quality specifications for oil, gas, and water
- Role of the production operator in multi‑discipline field teams
- Export metering requirements and custody transfer basics
- Seawater and closed cooling water system overview
Real World Examples
Hassi Messaoud oilfield (Algeria) – SCADA for oil-collecting network
Implementation: A study on the Hassi Messaoud oilfield in Algeria describes a SCADA system used to model, monitor, and optimize an oil-collecting pipeline network, with PLCs gathering data from field sensors on flow and pressure and temperature and sending it to a central SCADA server that enabled real-time supervision of the network. The system integrated PLC-SCADA communication across the geographically dispersed pipeline network serving the oilfield, with the SCADA architecture collecting real-time measurements from multiple field locations and transmitting them to a central control point where operators could monitor production routing and identify deviations from normal operating conditions including potential leak events. The PLC-SCADA integration supported production optimization by giving operators centralized visibility over flow rates and pressure profiles and temperature readings across the entire oil-collecting network, enabling faster anomaly detection and better coordination between control-room and field teams for addressing operational issues before they escalated.
Results: The SCADA system enabled real-time supervision and optimization of the network, improved leak detection, and supported better operational decisions, directly reflecting the SCADA and instrumentation concepts covered in this course’s modules on instrumentation and control and production overview. Results confirmed that production operators who can read trends and understand alarms and interpret flow and pressure data are better able to optimize production and detect leaks or restrictions early, demonstrating exactly the kind of SCADA and PLC-based monitoring capabilities this course is designed to build through its coverage of flow diagrams and basic and advanced instrumentation and SCADA systems.
Gas-condensate GOSP – Separator-condition optimization
Implementation: A thermodynamic design study published in SCIRP developed a self-developed Matlab simulator to optimize the pressure and temperature and number of separators for gas condensate reservoir separators in order to obtain maximized tank liquid volume and minimized tank liquid density, applying the Peng-Robinson equation of state and a simultaneous optimization algorithm that calculates optimum pressure and temperature across a wide range in one stage without manual working. The simulator was tested against multiple commercial tools including Aspen Plus and Aspen Hysys and PVTi using a gas condensate reservoir dataset with 370 K temperature and 250 bar pressure, running simulations with one, two, and three separator configurations to identify how increasing separator stages increases stock tank liquid volume while decreasing stock tank liquid density through more refined multistage separation. Results across all simulators confirmed that by increasing the separator number from one to three the stage of separation process is increased and separation occurs in a higher quality situation, with the custom Matlab simulator calculating the highest liquid output from the third separator in comparison to all other commercial simulators and demonstrating that simultaneous optimization of both pressure and temperature yields better results than fixing one parameter and varying the other as done in commercial tools.
Results: The simulation study concluded that the custom simulator is in good agreement with other simulators to predict the required parameters while also being an easy-to-use tool that directly obtains required parameters with the help of a simple algorithm, with the economic analysis showing that even a difference of 0.68 kmol/hr in predicted liquid output is equivalent to approximately 20 bbl per day and 36,500 bbl over five years worth over 1.4 million USD at 40 USD per barrel demonstrating the significant financial value of optimized separator design. Results illustrated how understanding separator operation and process conditions and phase equilibria translates into higher production efficiency, confirming that operators and engineers who understand phase behavior and vapor-liquid equilibrium and the impact of separator pressure and temperature on liquid recovery can materially improve plant yield in ways this course’s emphasis on basic chemistry and vapor equilibria and fluid-flow principles and heat transfer and separator operation is specifically designed to develop.
GSE Systems – EnVision GOSP operator-training simulator
Implementation: GSE Systems’ EnVision Gas Oil Separation Process Simulation and Tutorial provides a real-time dynamic process simulation program used for operator training based upon a rigorous and high-fidelity mathematical process model to provide a realistic dynamic response of a process unit, covering major equipment including wellheads and manifolds and test and HP and MP and LP separators and electrostatic coalescer and three-stage gas compression and pipeline compressor and amine absorber and glycol dehydrator and glycol regenerator. The simulator models key operating variables including HP separator pressure at 70.0 bar and MP separator pressure at 20.0 bar and LP separator pressure at 2.0 bar and crude oil export flow at 725.0 M3/H and crude oil water content at 0.12 wt percent and amine absorber outlet gas H2S at 13.0 PPM, with the interactive tutorial providing an overview and fundamental principles and control and operating principles for a gas oil separation process using voice and video and animation and graphics covering components including wellheads and manifold gathering and separation and produced water and oil export and gas compression and gas sweetening and gas dehydration. The simulator allows trainees to practice startup and shutdown operations and normal operations and emergency shutdown operation and control exercises and troubleshooting and recovery from equipment and instrument and control valve malfunctions, with the troubleshooting section covering hydrate formation and foaming and corrosion and compressor fouling and poor amine absorber performance and glycol system problems, and both simulation and tutorial coming with a Learning Management System allowing an instructor to register trainees and monitor their performance and quiz scores.
Results: The EnVision GOSP simulator closely mirrored the way this course uses simulators and exercises to prepare production operators for real-world plant operation, with the high-fidelity real-time dynamic simulation giving operators the ability to practice startup and shutdown and emergency procedures and fault scenarios in a safe environment before working on the real plant, improving confidence and decision-making. Results confirmed that operators who train on such simulators are better prepared to interpret process behavior and respond to upsets and operate complex production systems safely, with the simulator’s coverage of gas sweetening and gas dehydration including glycol systems and amine absorber performance directly mapping to this course’s modules on gas conditioning and glycol generation and dehydration and production overview.
Be inspired by leading oil and gas production operator achievements. Register now to build the skills your organization needs for GOSP optimization and production monitoring excellence!
