Led by Senior Reservoir Engineer Simulacrum
About this course
The oil and gas industry requires engineers from a dozen disciplines to work in close coordination on every project. The drilling engineer depends on what the reservoir engineer characterised. The production engineer depends on what the drilling engineer completed. The process engineer depends on what the production engineer delivers. Breakdowns in cross-disciplinary understanding are where projects lose money, where safety incidents begin, and where good technical decisions fail to reach the people who need to act on them.
This course surveys the entire value chain — from the geological concepts that make a field possible, through reservoir characterisation, drilling, well completion, production engineering, surface facilities, pipeline and mechanical engineering, process control, safety management, offshore operations, petroleum economics, and the digital transformation currently reshaping the industry. It does not develop any single discipline to specialist depth. It develops the ability to see where each discipline sits in the whole, what it is trying to achieve, and where it hands off to the next.
The host is the Senior Reservoir Engineer Simulacrum — a practitioner whose role, more than almost any other in the upstream, requires constant engagement across disciplinary boundaries. The reservoir engineer must understand what the geoscientist found, what the drilling engineer drilled, what the production engineer is producing, and what the facilities engineer is handling. The reservoir is the asset; everything else is the delivery system; and the engineer who manages an asset without understanding its delivery system mismanages it.
Led by Senior Reservoir Engineer Simulacrum
The question
The oil and gas industry divides into upstream, midstream, and downstream — each with its own engineering disciplines, commercial structures, and risk profile. This module develops the map: the petroleum system that makes a producing field possible, the SPE-PRMS reserve classification that governs how volumes are reported, and the commercial agreements through which the industry operates. The closing exercise traces the full value chain from geological target to end-market product.
Outcome
The student can describe the three-tier industry structure, name the four elements of a petroleum system, and explain the SPE-PRMS reserve classification categories. (Industry orientation)
Sub-units
Led by Senior Reservoir Engineer Simulacrum
The question
How do hydrocarbons move from the reservoir to the processing plant? This module follows the path from completed wellbore to primary separator — well completions, inflow performance and nodal analysis, artificial lift methods and when each is selected, gathering systems and multiphase flow, and the three-phase separator as the first processing step. The emphasis is on the handoff points between reservoir, production, and process engineering.
Outcome
The student can describe the production system from reservoir to separator, explain nodal analysis, and name the primary artificial lift methods and their selection criteria. (Production system fundamentals)
Sub-units
Led by Senior Reservoir Engineer Simulacrum
The question
From the separator onward, four engineering disciplines take over. This module introduces each through the specific problem it solves at the facility: pipeline pressure drop and wall integrity, rotating equipment performance and failure, crude distillation and refinery upgrading, structural loading on onshore and offshore facilities, and the instrumentation and control layer — including the critical distinction between the basic process control system and the safety instrumented system.
Outcome
The student can explain pipeline pressure drop and the hoop stress equation, describe the pump curve and NPSH, and explain the structural distinction between the BPCS and the SIS. (Cross-disciplinary facility engineering)
Sub-units
Led by Senior Reservoir Engineer Simulacrum
The question
The oil and gas industry built its safety management framework in response to catastrophic failures — Piper Alpha, Texas City, Deepwater Horizon. This module develops that framework: the distinction between process safety and personal safety, the bow-tie risk model, HAZOP and LOPA, corrosion control and materials selection, offshore operations and the OIM's authority, the permit to work system, and management of change. The closing sub-unit introduces project management from FEED through EPC to commissioning.
Outcome
The student can distinguish process safety from personal safety, explain the bow-tie model, describe the purpose of HAZOP, and explain what the permit to work system controls. (O&G safety management framework)
Sub-units
Led by Senior Reservoir Engineer Simulacrum
The question
Every engineering decision is also a financial decision. This module develops the economic and commercial framework: CAPEX and OPEX, the J-curve cash flow profile, NPV and IRR, production sharing contracts and concession terms, regulatory compliance and decommissioning obligations. It closes with the digital transformation — permanent downhole gauges, digital twins, machine learning in production optimisation — and the engineering case for renewable integration and carbon capture.
Outcome
The student can explain NPV and IRR, describe the cost recovery mechanism in a PSC, and explain what a digital twin is and why real-time downhole data has changed reservoir management. (Petroleum economics and the digital transformation)
Sub-units