An Interactive 5-Day Training Course
Utilities and Support Systems for Production Facilities
Practical guide to utilities and support systems engineering.
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Duration
5 Days
Price
$ 4,000
Starting From
23 Aug 2027
Utilities and Support Systems for Production Facilities
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Utilities and Support Systems for Production Facilities - SF-USS-PEA27
| Code | Date | Time | Duration | Location | Currency | Early Bird Fee Per Person |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SF-USS-PEA27 | 23 - 27 Aug 2027 | 10 AM CST | 5 Days - 4 Hours / Day |
Online |
USD |
4000 |
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Utilities and Support Systems for Production Facilities
This training covers the utility and support systems that a production facility depends on. It works through power generation and distribution, fuel gas conditioning, instrument air and nitrogen, heating and cooling medium systems, water systems, chemical injection, open and closed drains, flare and vent systems, and emergency and essential services, with emphasis on reliability, sizing and the consequences of utility failure.
Description
Utility systems receive far less engineering attention than process systems and cause a disproportionate share of production loss. A facility stops when instrument air pressure falls, when a generator trips, when the cooling medium circuit loses circulation or when fuel gas goes off specification. In each case the process equipment is intact and capable, but the support system it depends on is not. This training covers those systems in the technical detail they warrant.
Power generation and distribution are covered from generator selection and load estimation through switchgear, distribution architecture, motor starting, protection coordination, essential and emergency supplies and black start capability. Fuel gas systems are addressed as a conditioning problem, since fuel quality variation affects every fired and gas-driven machine on site. Instrument air, plant air and nitrogen are covered with sizing, drying, quality specification and the consequences of failure. Heating and cooling medium systems, cooling water, potable and utility water, and chemical injection systems follow. Drains, flare and vent systems are addressed as both process safety systems and operational systems. Throughout, the emphasis is on sizing basis, redundancy philosophy, failure consequence and the reliability practice that keeps availability high.
Instrument air illustrates the general problem. It is a low value utility that is frequently under-engineered, yet almost every control valve and many shutdown valves depend on it. When air pressure falls, valves move to their fail-safe positions across the whole facility simultaneously, which is a full plant trip. Air system failures are usually caused by compressor unavailability, dryer failure allowing moisture into the system, receiver capacity insufficient to bridge a compressor changeover, or a large consumer such as a purge or a leak drawing the header down. Each of these is preventable with correct sizing and maintenance practice.
Power is the other common origin of facility-wide loss. On isolated facilities the power system is a small island grid with limited inertia, where the loss of one generator can cascade into a blackout if load shedding does not act correctly. Motor starting on a small grid causes voltage dips that can trip other equipment. Protection coordination determines whether a fault clears locally or takes out a distribution board. Black start capability determines how long recovery takes after a total loss.
Fuel gas quality affects everything that burns it. Variation in composition changes Wobbe index, which changes burner performance in fired heaters and gas turbines. Liquid carryover into fuel gas damages turbines and causes burner flameout. Fuel gas conditioning, including scrubbing, filtering, heating above hydrocarbon dew point and pressure control, exists to prevent these outcomes.
Finally, utility systems are where facilities frequently discover that they lack margin. A facility debottlenecked on the process side often finds that the utility systems were sized to the original throughput and have no capacity for the additional cooling, power, air or chemical demand. Assessing utility capacity is therefore an essential part of any expansion or modification study.
By the end of this training, participants will be able to:
- Identify the utility systems in a production facility and describe the process functions that depend on each
- Estimate facility electrical load and specify generation, distribution and essential supply requirements
- Explain power system protection, load shedding, motor starting and black start requirements on isolated grids
- Specify fuel gas conditioning requirements including scrubbing, filtration, heating and pressure control
- Size instrument air, plant air and nitrogen systems including compressors, dryers and receiver capacity
- Design heating and cooling medium systems and evaluate their circulation, expansion and inventory requirements
- Specify water systems including cooling water, potable water, firewater and utility water
- Design chemical injection systems for reliability, accuracy and availability
- Assess drain, flare and vent system design and the operational and safety functions they perform
The training addresses each utility system with its function, sizing basis, configuration options, redundancy philosophy and failure consequence, so that participants understand both how the system works and what happens when it does not. Load estimation, air system sizing, medium circulation duty, receiver capacity and chemical dosage calculations are worked through numerically. Utility flow diagrams, single line diagrams and system schematics from operating facilities are used as working documents. Utility failure case histories are examined for the consequence path from utility loss to production loss, and participants are encouraged to bring utility reliability problems from their own facilities for group discussion.
Organisations sending participants to this training will:
- Reduce production loss caused by utility system failures rather than process equipment failures
- Improve reliability of instrument air, power and fuel gas systems through correct sizing and maintenance practice
- Identify utility constraints before they limit debottlenecking or expansion projects
- Reduce energy consumption and operating cost through better utility system operation
- Improve the technical quality of utility system design review and modification assessment
- Strengthen emergency preparedness through better understanding of essential and emergency supply arrangements
Participants will:
- Understand every utility system in their facility and what depends on it
- Size and specify utility systems for a defined facility demand
- Trace the consequence of a utility failure through to its production and safety effect
- Identify utility capacity limits during modification and expansion assessment
- Improve utility system reliability through targeted operating and maintenance change
- Build capability in an area often overlooked in technical training but central to facility availability
- Facilities, process and production engineers
- Electrical, mechanical and utilities engineers
- Operations engineers, supervisors and panel operators
- Maintenance and reliability engineers supporting utility equipment
- Project and commissioning engineers responsible for utility scope
- Technical staff carrying out debottlenecking and expansion studies
- Graduate engineers entering facilities and operations roles
Module 1 - Utility Systems in the Facility
- Utility system inventory and the process functions dependent on each
- Utility flow diagrams and utility distribution documentation
- Sizing basis: normal demand, peak demand, future demand, design margin
- Redundancy philosophy: installed spare, standby, essential and emergency classification
- Failure consequence analysis for each utility
- Utility system interdependence and common cause failure
- Onshore and offshore differences in utility provision
- Utility capacity assessment during debottlenecking studies
Module 2 - Power Generation
- Electrical load estimation and load list development
- Generation options: gas turbine, gas engine, diesel, grid supply, hybrid
- Generator sizing, load factor and part load efficiency
- Parallel operation, load sharing and governor control
- Frequency and voltage control on isolated systems
- Waste heat recovery from generation
- Emergency generation and its start requirements
- Uninterruptible power supplies and battery systems
- Black start capability and recovery from total power loss
- Fuel supply reliability for generation
Module 3 - Power Distribution and Protection
- Distribution architecture: voltage levels, switchboards, motor control centres
- Transformers, switchgear and cabling
- Motor starting methods and voltage dip effects on isolated grids
- Variable speed drives and harmonic considerations
- Protection philosophy and coordination
- Earthing systems and their selection
- Load shedding schemes and their configuration
- Hazardous area electrical equipment requirements
- Electrical isolation, permit and safe working practice
- Power quality, reliability and common failure modes
Module 4 - Fuel Gas Systems
- Fuel gas sources: produced gas, import, flash gas, recovered vapour
- Fuel gas quality requirements for turbines, engines and fired heaters
- Wobbe index, heating value variation and combustion consequences
- Fuel gas conditioning: scrubbing, filtration, coalescing
- Superheating above hydrocarbon dew point
- Pressure reduction, letdown and metering
- Fuel gas headers, distribution and pressure control
- Start-up fuel and alternative fuel provision
- Liquid carryover consequences and prevention
- Fuel gas system reliability and its effect on facility availability
Module 5 - Compressed Air and Nitrogen Systems
- Instrument air and plant air demand estimation
- Air compressor selection: screw, reciprocating, centrifugal
- Air drying: refrigerant, desiccant, membrane, and dew point specification
- Air quality standards, filtration and oil content
- Receiver sizing and ride-through capacity
- Distribution header design and pressure control
- Consequences of instrument air failure and fail-safe valve behaviour
- Segregation of instrument air from plant air
- Nitrogen generation and supply: membrane, PSA, cryogenic, cylinder
- Nitrogen applications: purging, blanketing, seal gas, preservation
- Common air and nitrogen system failures
Module 6 - Heating and Cooling Medium Systems
- Heating medium selection: hot oil, glycol water, steam, direct fired
- Hot oil systems: heater, circulation pumps, expansion vessel, degassing
- Hot oil degradation, fouling and analysis
- Steam systems: generation, distribution, traps, condensate return
- Glycol water heating and cooling loops
- Cooling medium systems and closed loop cooling
- Cooling water systems: once through, recirculating, cooling towers
- Cooling water treatment: scale, corrosion, biological control
- Seawater cooling systems, biofouling and chlorination
- Circulation duty, expansion, venting and inventory management
- Common medium system operating problems
Module 7 - Water Systems
- Utility water sources and treatment requirements
- Potable water production and quality control
- Desalination and water makers on offshore facilities
- Service water, wash water and utility distribution
- Firewater systems: pumps, ring main, hydrants, deluge
- Firewater pump testing, reliability and availability requirements
- Demineralised water production where required
- Water storage, tankage and inventory requirements
- Water system hygiene and legionella control
Module 8 - Chemical Injection Systems
- Chemical inventory in a production facility and injection point mapping
- Injection pump selection, accuracy and turndown
- Chemical storage tanks, bunding and material compatibility
- Injection quills, atomisers and mixing requirements
- Dosage control, flow proportional injection and verification
- Chemical availability and the consequence of injection failure
- Redundancy and spare pump philosophy
- Chemical handling safety and personnel exposure
- Chemical consumption monitoring and cost control
- Common chemical injection system reliability problems
Module 9 - Drains, Flare and Vent Systems
- Closed drain systems: collection, drums, pumps, recovery
- Open drain systems: hazardous and non-hazardous segregation
- Interceptors, sumps and oily water routing
- Drainage design for spill containment and firewater run-off
- Flare system function and configuration: high pressure, low pressure, cold flare
- Flare knockout drums, seals and liquid handling
- Flare tips, pilots, ignition systems and purge requirements
- Flare radiation, dispersion and sizing considerations
- Cold vent systems and atmospheric discharge
- Flare gas recovery and flaring reduction
- Emissions measurement and reporting from flare and vent systems
Module 10 - Utility Reliability and Emergency Systems
- Essential and emergency service classification
- Emergency power, lighting and communications
- Emergency shutdown interaction with utility systems
- Utility failure scenarios and facility response
- Ride-through, restart and recovery sequencing
- Preventive maintenance strategy for utility equipment
- Availability targets and reliability measurement for utilities
- Spares holding for critical utility equipment
- Utility system performance monitoring
- Assessing utility capacity for facility modification and expansion
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.
This course is led by a utilities and support systems engineering specialist with more than 20 years in the oil and gas industry, built on keeping the systems running that everything else depends on.
He currently holds facilities engineering leadership responsibility with a major operator managing utility and support systems across production facilities, covering power generation and distribution, fuel gas systems and reliability requirements — the disciplines that keep every other part of the plant running. Earlier in his career he served as a facilities engineer on major production developments, leading utility system design and integration work on some of the industry's most utility-intensive facilities. Across two decades he has taken several utility and support systems from design through commissioning into safe, reliable operation.
That operating background shapes how he teaches. Delegates learn not only how utility systems are designed to work, but how they behave when the plant depends on them most — where power generation and distribution failures actually cascade, why fuel gas and instrument air systems are more critical than they appear, what drives reliability requirements for heating, cooling and water systems, how chemical injection and drains systems get overlooked in design, and how engineering and operations teams manage flare and vent systems together. Every module is anchored in real utility system data, design decisions and lessons from operating production facilities.
His subject coverage spans the full utilities chain: power generation and distribution, fuel gas, instrument and plant air, nitrogen, heating and cooling medium, water systems, chemical injection, drains, flare and vent, and the reliability requirements that make each of them critical.
He has delivered utilities and support systems training for many years across the Middle East, North Africa and Southeast Asia, working with mixed groups of facilities engineers, process engineers and technical management at every level of experience. He is an active contributor to industry forums on facilities engineering and utility systems.
His approach is practical, discussion-led and grounded in real utility system experience — not the textbook.
Frequently Asked Questions
All course bookings made through PEA are strictly non-refundable. By registering for a course, you acknowledge and accept that all fees are payable in full and are not subject to refund under any circumstances, including changes in personal or professional commitments or partial attendance.
PEA reserves the right to make reasonable adjustments to course content, trainers, or schedules where necessary, without entitling delegates to a refund. Comprehensive details of each course — including objectives, target audience, and content — are clearly outlined before enrolment, and it is the responsibility of the delegate to ensure the course's suitability prior to booking.
For any inquiries related to cancellations or bookings, please contact our support team, who will be happy to assist you.
