Most production losses in mature assets are operational rather than geological. Wells fail to produce because pumps wear, gas lift valves leak, tubing scales up, water cut rises past the lift system's capability, flowlines block with wax or hydrates, or a facility bottleneck backs pressure up onto the reservoir. None of those are reservoir problems, and none are solved by subsurface work. They are solved by production operations teams who understand the whole system and can identify which part of it is limiting.

The economic case is direct. Deferment, the production a field could have made but did not, is normally the largest single controllable value item in an operating asset. Reducing it requires accurate surveillance, disciplined well testing, correct interpretation of pressure and rate data, and a maintenance and intervention programme aimed at the constraints that actually matter. All of that depends on staff who understand how the production system behaves rather than only how their own equipment works.

Production operations also carries the largest share of day-to-day integrity and safety exposure in an upstream asset. Wells are live pressure systems, facilities hold hydrocarbon inventory, and routine tasks such as well starts, choke changes, pigging, chemical injection and separator level adjustments all have failure modes with consequence. Competent operations practice, built on technical understanding rather than procedure-following alone, is the primary control.

As assets age, the operating problem changes. Water cut rises, gas-oil ratio moves, reservoir pressure declines, artificial lift becomes mandatory, facilities designed for the early production profile become mismatched to the fluid they receive, and unit operating cost per barrel climbs. Managing that transition is the core work of production operations, and it requires a broad, integrated technical view of the asset.

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

• Describe the complete production system from reservoir to export and identify the components that control deliverability at each stage
• Apply inflow and tubing performance concepts to explain a well's operating point and predict how it responds to changes in pressure, water cut and gas-oil ratio
• Compare artificial lift methods against reservoir conditions, well configuration, operating envelope and failure behaviour
• Plan and interpret well tests, and explain how test data is used in production allocation and reporting
• Evaluate production chemistry and flow assurance risks including scale, wax, asphaltene, hydrate, corrosion and emulsion problems, and select appropriate treatment strategies
• Diagnose production losses using surveillance data and distinguish reservoir, well, lift, flowline and facility causes
• Assess intervention and workover options against the production gain, cost and risk they carry
• Explain production accounting, deferment analysis and asset performance reporting and their use in operational decision making
• Apply integrity, well control and process safety requirements to routine production operations activities

The training follows the production system in physical order, from reservoir inflow through the completion, artificial lift system, flowline and surface facility to the export point, so that each topic builds on the one before it. Technical instruction is supported by worked examples, well performance plots, production data sets and field case histories drawn from operating assets, including cases where production was lost and the diagnostic path used to recover it. Each module closes with the operating decisions that the technical content supports, and participants are encouraged to bring production problems from their own fields for structured group discussion.

Organisations sending participants to this training will:

• Reduce production deferment through faster and more accurate diagnosis of well and facility problems
• Improve the quality of well test data and, through it, the reliability of allocation and production reporting
• Strengthen collaboration between operations, production engineering, subsurface and maintenance teams by establishing a shared technical model of the asset
• Improve the targeting of intervention and workover spend towards the wells and constraints with the largest production upside
• Raise the standard of routine operating practice, reducing incidents and unplanned shutdowns caused by process and well handling errors
• Build internal capability to manage the operational transition that comes with rising water cut and declining reservoir pressure

Participants will:

• Understand the complete production system and how each component limits or enables total asset output
• Read and interpret well performance data, production trends and surveillance plots with confidence
• Diagnose the cause of a production drop systematically rather than by trial and error
• Discuss artificial lift, well intervention and facility constraints credibly with specialists and contractors
• Understand how production numbers are measured, allocated and reported, and where their limitations lie
• Build a technical foundation for progression into production engineering, operations supervision or asset management roles

• Production engineers and production technologists
• Field operators, production supervisors and operations superintendents
• Reservoir, petroleum and drilling engineers moving into production or asset roles
• Facilities, process and maintenance engineers supporting producing assets
• Well intervention, well services and completion engineers
• Graduate and early-career engineers entering upstream operations
• Technical staff in planning, economics, HSE and asset management who interface with production operations

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.