A production system is a single hydraulic circuit running from the reservoir to the export point. The reservoir supplies pressure; that pressure is consumed by inflow into the wellbore, by lift up the tubing, across the choke, along the flowline, through the gathering system and finally through the processing plant to the export pressure. Whatever pressure is spent in the surface network is unavailable to lift fluid from the reservoir, and every well connected to a common header is competing for the same available pressure.

This is why field processing has to be understood as a network rather than as a set of independent items. Raising separator pressure to improve gas handling raises backpressure on every well in the gathering system. Adding a high rate well to a common line increases the pressure drop and can shut in a weaker well entirely. Water breakthrough in one well changes the mixture density in a shared flowline and alters the pressure drop for everything sharing that line. These interactions are routine and they are frequently missed, with the result that production is lost to surface constraints that nobody has quantified.

Alongside the hydraulics sit the flow assurance problems. Fluid moving through the surface system cools and depressurises, and both changes can push it outside the stability envelope of its components. Hydrates form, wax deposits, asphaltenes precipitate, scale builds at points of mixing and pressure drop, and corrosion and erosion attack the pipe wall. Managing these processes is a permanent operational activity rather than a design exercise, and it depends on understanding both the fluid and the conditions it encounters along its path.

By the end of this training, participants will be able to:

• Characterise the produced stream and predict its phase behaviour along the surface flow path
• Analyse wellhead and choke performance and determine critical and subcritical flow behaviour
• Predict multiphase pressure drop and liquid holdup in flowlines and risers
• Evaluate gathering system configurations and quantify the backpressure interaction between wells
• Select and size field separation and treating equipment appropriate to the field stage
• Determine associated gas conditioning, compression and dehydration requirements
• Design produced water handling schemes for treatment, reinjection or disposal
• Identify and manage flow assurance risks including hydrates, wax, asphaltenes, scale, corrosion and erosion
• Specify chemical treatment programmes and injection strategies for the field system
• Optimise the surface network to increase field deliverability within existing facility constraints

Organisations sending participants to this training will:

• Recover production currently lost to surface backpressure and network constraints
• Improve field-wide deliverability without additional wells or major facility investment
• Reduce flow assurance interruptions and the cost of remediation
• Improve allocation quality and the reliability of well-level production data
• Plan facility modifications in step with rising water cut and falling reservoir pressure
• Strengthen coordination between subsurface, operations and facilities functions

Participants will:

• Understand the complete production system as one connected hydraulic circuit
• Quantify where pressure is being lost across the surface network
• Predict and prevent hydrate, wax, scale, corrosion and erosion problems
• Size and select field processing equipment appropriate to the field stage
• Identify practical opportunities to increase production from existing infrastructure
• Work confidently across the interface between wells, facilities and operations

• Production engineers and production operations engineers
• Facilities and process engineers working on field systems
• Reservoir and petroleum engineers dealing with surface constraints
• Flow assurance and production chemistry specialists
• Field supervisors, plant superintendents and senior operators
• Well services and intervention engineers
• Technical managers responsible for field production performance

Upon successful completion of this training course, delegates will be awarded an official Certificate of Completion issued by the Petroleum Engineers Association (PEA), an ISO 9001:2015 certified training organization. The certificate carries 10 Credits and formally records the total learning hours completed.

Each certificate is signed by the Course Facilitator and the CEO of the Petroleum Engineers Association, and serves as verifiable proof of professional training that delegates can present to employers and professional bodies worldwide.