The first months of an unconventional well are a controlled decline. Pressure falls quickly, gas comes out of solution, water rate falls as load fluid returns and reservoir pressure drops near the fractures. How the well is choked during that period affects proppant flowback, fracture conductivity and, according to a good deal of field evidence, long-term recovery. This makes choke strategy one of the most consequential and most debated decisions in unconventional production.

Artificial lift follows quickly. Wells that flow naturally at high rates need lift within months, and the changing conditions mean that no single lift method suits the whole life. A typical sequence moves through gas lift or jet pumps at high rate and gas volume, to ESPs or plunger lift, to rod pumps at low rates, and each change costs money and deferred production. Planning the sequence in advance is cheaper than reacting.

At field level, wells interact. A new well drilled beside a depleted parent will often take fluid into the depleted zone and may damage the parent through a frac hit. Spacing, sequencing and protective measures are as much a production engineering concern as a development one. This course covers the whole life from flowback to refracturing, with cost control throughout.

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

• Design flowback programmes and choke schedules for unconventional wells.
• Evaluate aggressive and restricted drawdown strategies and their evidence.
• Manage water, proppant and solids handling during flowback.
• Interpret early-time production behaviour and what it reveals about the completion.
• Select artificial lift methods and plan the lift sequence over well life.
• Time lift installations and conversions to minimise deferment and cost.
• Analyse decline behaviour and forecast unconventional well production.
• Assess parent-child interference and frac hits and apply protective measures.
• Evaluate refracturing candidates and expected gains.
• Manage operating cost per barrel across a large well population.

Organisations sending participants to this training will:

• Improve long-term recovery through better flowback and drawdown management.
• Reduce deferment and cost through planned artificial lift sequencing.
• Improve production forecasting for unconventional assets.
• Manage parent-child interference and protect existing wells.
• Reduce operating cost per barrel across large well counts.

Participants will:

• Understand how unconventional wells behave from flowback onward.
• Be able to design a flowback and choke programme.
• Be able to plan the artificial lift sequence for a well's life.
• Be able to forecast unconventional well performance.
• Understand interference, refracturing and cost management in these assets.

• Production engineers in unconventional assets
• Completion and stimulation engineers
• Artificial lift engineers
• Reservoir engineers working on shale and tight plays
• Operations engineers and field supervisors
• Field development and planning engineers

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.