Every fishing job starts with a question: what exactly is in the well, where is it, and what does the top of it look like? A surprising number of jobs fail because that question was never answered properly. Without accurate dimensions, a clear fish sketch and knowledge of the condition of the fish top, tool selection becomes guesswork, and each unsuccessful run adds cost and often damages the fish further.

Fishing is a sequence of decisions under cost pressure. Each run has a probability of success and a cost, and the value of continuing falls with every failed attempt. Experienced operators set economic limits before starting: a number of runs or days after which the alternatives, which are usually sidetracking, plugging back or abandoning the well, become the better option. Without that discipline, fishing jobs consume far more than the well is worth.

Prevention is cheaper than any fishing job. Most stuck pipe and dropped equipment traces to known causes: running with inadequate hole cleaning, leaving pipe stationary in permeable formations, poor connection make-up, worn fishing necks, tools run without proper inspection and wireline used beyond its safe tension. This course covers recovery in detail, but it gives equal attention to the practices that avoid the need for it.

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

• Identify the mechanisms by which equipment becomes stuck or lost in a well.
• Diagnose the cause of sticking from operational symptoms and data.
• Gather the data needed for a fishing job and produce an accurate fish sketch.
• Select external and internal catch tools for a given fish.
• Apply jars, accelerators and bumper subs correctly.
• Apply techniques for freeing differentially stuck and mechanically stuck pipe.
• Plan back-off, severing and cutting operations.
• Plan milling and junk removal operations.
• Conduct wireline and coiled tubing fishing operations.
• Apply economic limits and decide when to stop fishing.
• Apply practices that prevent stuck and lost equipment.

Organisations sending participants to this training will:

• Improve fishing job success rates and reduce rig days lost.
• Improve decision making on when to continue fishing or change strategy.
• Reduce the incidence of stuck and dropped equipment through prevention.
• Improve data capture and record keeping that supports recovery operations.
• Reduce the cost of downhole incidents across the well portfolio.

Participants will:

• Understand why equipment becomes stuck or lost.
• Be able to diagnose a fish and select the right tools.
• Understand jarring systems and how to use them effectively.
• Be able to plan back-off, cutting and milling operations.
• Be able to judge when fishing should stop.

• Well intervention and workover engineers
• Drilling engineers
• Production engineers involved in well operations
• Well services supervisors
• Rig and field supervisors
• Operations engineers responsible for downhole incidents

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.