Every producing well operates at the point where the pressure the reservoir can deliver matches the pressure the well needs to lift fluid to surface. Nodal analysis makes that balance visible. By plotting the inflow performance relationship against the vertical lift performance curve, the engineer can see the rate the well should produce, where pressure is being lost and which change would give the most production for the least cost.

The method is only as good as its inputs. Inflow depends on reservoir pressure, productivity and skin; outflow depends on fluid properties, tubing size, flow correlation and surface pressure. A correlation that suits one well can be badly wrong in another, and an IPR built from one test can be out of date within months. Engineers who understand what lies behind each curve can judge whether a model is credible and which input is most likely to be wrong.

Common mistakes include running a model with an unmatched flow correlation, ignoring the unstable region to the left of the minimum on the outflow curve, attributing underperformance to the reservoir when the problem is in the completion or tubing, and oversizing tubing for early high rates so that the well loads up later in life. Used properly, nodal analysis is one of the cheapest and most useful tools in production engineering.

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

• Describe the production system and the pressure losses in each of its components.
• Construct inflow performance relationships for oil wells above and below the bubble point.
• Construct deliverability relationships for gas wells, including non-Darcy flow.
• Quantify skin and completion pressure losses and their effect on inflow.
• Calculate vertical lift performance using single-phase and multiphase flow correlations.
• Select and match flow correlations to measured well data.
• Determine the well operating point and identify unstable operating conditions.
• Use sensitivity analysis to evaluate tubing size, wellhead pressure, skin, water cut and gas–liquid ratio.
• Apply nodal analysis to tubing selection, well diagnosis, liquid loading prediction and artificial lift decisions.

Organisations sending participants to this training will:

• Have engineers who can produce credible well performance predictions and explain their basis.
• Improve tubing and completion sizing decisions across the life of the well.
• Diagnose underperforming wells faster and target interventions at the real constraint.
• Plan artificial lift and liquid loading remedies earlier.
• Improve the consistency and quality of well models used across the asset.

Participants will:

• Understand the physics behind every curve on a nodal analysis plot.
• Be able to build and interpret IPR and VLP curves with confidence.
• Be able to choose and match flow correlations to field data.
• Be able to identify where a well is losing pressure and what to do about it.
• Have a solid base for production modelling, artificial lift and optimisation work.

• Production engineers
• Well performance and surveillance engineers
• Reservoir engineers who work with well models
• Completion engineers
• Artificial lift engineers
• Production technologists
• Graduate engineers in production roles

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.