EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Surface Production Operations provides professionals with a comprehensive understanding of the systems, equipment, and processes used to handle produced fluids safely and efficiently. The course explains how oil, gas, water, and solids move from the wellhead through separation, treatment, storage, and export facilities. Participants examine the operating principles of separators, heaters, treaters, compressors, pumps, tanks, and produced water systems. The program integrates process fundamentals with practical operating procedures, monitoring, troubleshooting, and production optimization. Particular emphasis is placed on fluid behavior, pressure control, separation performance, flow assurance, and equipment reliability. Participants learn to recognize abnormal conditions, diagnose operational problems, and take appropriate corrective actions. Practical exercises demonstrate how process variables influence production efficiency, product quality, safety, and environmental performance. The course also addresses start-up, shutdown, emergency response, corrosion, chemical treatment, and operating discipline. By completion, participants will be prepared to support reliable, safe, and optimized surface production operations.
INTRODUCTION
Surface production facilities are essential for transforming multiphase well fluids into marketable oil and gas products. Effective operations require a clear understanding of process flow, equipment behavior, fluid properties, and operating limits. Production personnel must continuously balance throughput, product specifications, equipment integrity, safety, and environmental requirements. This course introduces the complete surface production workflow from wellhead reception to treatment, storage, and export. Participants examine how pressure, temperature, flow rate, composition, and phase behavior affect facility performance. The program explains practical methods for operating separation, compression, pumping, heating, dehydration, and water treatment systems. Practical applications connect process fundamentals with field monitoring, troubleshooting, optimization, and equipment protection. Particular attention is given to abnormal conditions, operational hazards, process control, and safe intervention. The resulting knowledge enables participants to contribute confidently to efficient and reliable oil and gas production facilities.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
Participants will achieve the following objectives by this course:
- Explain the complete surface production process from wellhead reception to product export.
- Describe multiphase fluid behavior and its influence on production facility performance.
- Operate separation, treatment, compression, pumping, and storage systems effectively.
- Monitor pressure, temperature, flow, level, and process control variables accurately.
- Diagnose common operating problems affecting production efficiency and product quality.
- Apply practical methods for oil treatment, gas conditioning, and produced water handling.
- Recognize flow assurance, corrosion, erosion, scaling, and solids management challenges.
- Perform safe start-up, shutdown, isolation, and abnormal operating procedures.
- Improve production performance through systematic monitoring, troubleshooting, and optimization.
- Integrate safety, environmental protection, equipment integrity, and operational discipline into daily activities.
TARGET AUDIENCE
This program targets a professional audience seeking to improve knowledge and skills:
- Production operators responsible for daily operation, monitoring, and control of surface facilities.
- Production engineers supporting facility performance, troubleshooting, optimization, and production assurance activities.
- Process engineers involved in separation, treatment, compression, pumping, and fluid handling systems.
- Maintenance personnel requiring stronger understanding of production equipment behavior and operating conditions.
- Field supervisors coordinating production targets, operating teams, safety, and equipment reliability.
- Control room operators monitoring process variables, alarms, trips, and facility performance.
- Technical professionals supporting oil, gas, and produced water processing facilities.
- Early-career petroleum professionals seeking practical foundations in integrated surface production operations.
COURSE OUTLINE
Day 1: Surface Production Fundamentals and Process Flow
- Overview of upstream surface production systems and processing objectives.
- Flow path from wellhead through treatment, storage, and export facilities.
- Fundamentals of oil, gas, water, and solids behavior.
- Pressure, temperature, flow rate, density, and viscosity effects.
- Understanding process flow diagrams and production facility configurations.
- Wellhead equipment, manifolds, flowlines, and gathering system operations.
- Identifying major process hazards and critical operating parameters.
- Applying routine monitoring, communication, and operating discipline requirements.
Day 2: Separation, Oil Treatment, and Storage Operations
- Principles of gravity separation and multiphase fluid disengagement.
- Two-phase and three-phase separator configurations and applications.
- Managing pressure, level, temperature, and interface control systems.
- Diagnosing carryover, carry-under, foaming, surging, and unstable separation.
- Oil heating, emulsion breaking, dehydration, and treatment fundamentals.
- Chemical treatment principles for improving oil separation and product quality.
- Crude oil storage, tank operations, gauging, and vapor management.
- Optimizing separation performance while protecting downstream equipment.
Day 3: Gas Handling, Compression, and Conditioning
- Gas behavior and operating requirements within production facilities.
- Scrubbers, knockout drums, filters, and liquid removal operations.
- Compression principles and common reciprocating and centrifugal compressor applications.
- Monitoring suction, discharge, temperature, vibration, and compressor performance.
- Preventing liquid carryover, surge, overheating, and damaging operating conditions.
- Gas cooling, dehydration, and conditioning fundamentals for export requirements.
- Managing condensate recovery and gas system liquids safely.
- Troubleshooting common gas handling and compression system problems.
Day 4: Pumps, Produced Water, and Flow Assurance
- Centrifugal and positive displacement pump operating principles.
- Understanding head, capacity, efficiency, cavitation, and pump performance.
- Diagnosing low flow, vibration, seal failure, and suction problems.
- Produced water separation, treatment, monitoring, and disposal requirements.
- Managing oil carryover, solids, chemicals, and water treatment performance.
- Recognizing hydrate, wax, scale, corrosion, and erosion risks.
- Applying chemical injection and operational flow assurance strategies.
- Protecting pipelines, equipment, and production capacity from flow restrictions.
Day 5: Troubleshooting, Optimization, Safety, and Integrated Operations
- Applying systematic troubleshooting methods to surface production problems.
- Interpreting process trends, alarms, deviations, and equipment symptoms.
- Conducting safe facility start-up, shutdown, and operational transitions.
- Managing trips, emergency conditions, and production system instability.
- Improving throughput, efficiency, product quality, and equipment availability.
- Integrating process safety, environmental controls, and equipment integrity.
- Reviewing practical cases involving production losses and operational recovery.
- Developing integrated improvement plans for reliable surface production operations.
COURSE DURATION
This intensive professional training course is delivered over five consecutive training days and combines technical presentations, process flow analysis, equipment demonstrations, guided calculations, troubleshooting exercises, practical case studies, group discussions, and operational scenarios designed to strengthen participants’ ability to operate, monitor, troubleshoot, and optimize surface production facilities safely and efficiently.
INSTRUCTOR INFORMATION
The course is delivered by an internationally certified expert with extensive practical and consulting experience in surface production operations, oil and gas processing, separation, compression, pumping systems, produced water treatment, flow assurance, process troubleshooting, safety, and production optimization.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
- Is previous production experience required? Basic oil and gas knowledge is recommended, while concepts are developed progressively.
- Does the course cover separators? Yes, it addresses separator design, controls, performance problems, and optimization.
- Are pumps and compressors included? Yes, operating principles, monitoring, common problems, and troubleshooting are covered.
- Does the program address produced water? Yes, separation, treatment, monitoring, solids, chemicals, and disposal are included.
- Is the course suitable for field operators? Yes, it combines process fundamentals with practical operating and troubleshooting applications.
CONCLUSION
Surface Production Operations provides a comprehensive foundation for understanding and managing modern oil and gas production facilities. Participants develop practical knowledge of separation, treatment, compression, pumping, water handling, and flow assurance. The course strengthens the ability to identify abnormal conditions and resolve operational problems systematically. It also improves production performance through stronger safety, monitoring, equipment integrity, and optimization practices. Graduates are better prepared to support reliable, efficient, and sustainable surface production operations.
