Click on a current Public Short Course topic to view the outline :

• Fundamentals of the Oil & Gas Industry (5 day course)
• Fundamentals of Gas & LNG Projects (4 day course)
• Introduction to the Oil & Gas Industry (2 day course)
• Introduction to the Oil & Gas Industry (1 day course)
• Petroleum Industry Service Contracts (2 day course)
• Natural Gas Contracts & Management (3 day course)
• International Petroleum Contracts (3 day course)
• Petroleum Economics & Risk Analysis (3 day course)
• Practical Aspects of Reservoir Engineering (5 day course)
• Offshore Gas Production Technology (3 day course)
• Oil & Gas Industry Project Management (2 day course)
• Current Accounting & Tax Issues (3 day course)
• Formation Evaluation (5 day course)
• The Search for Oil and Gas - An Overview (1 day course)
• Oil and Gas for Investors (1 day course)

Every operation in the oil and gas industry requires a joint effort. To explain the fundamentals of the industry, therefore, this course draws on the knowledge of five experts – an explorationist, a petroleum engineer, a petroleum economist, a petroleum lawyer, and a gas and LNG consultant. With a different presenter each day, delegates are taken from exploration and extraction to economic analysis and writing of contracts, before finishing with a specific examination of the gas and LNG business.

Topics include:

• Exploration – how oil and gas form and collect, locating reservoirs, estimation of volumes, drilling, maintaining wells
• Engineering – analysing reservoirs, fluid flows, forecasting production, drive mechanisms, enhanced oil recovery
• Economics – cash flow forecasts, taxation, production sharing contracts, economic indicators, risk analysis, petroleum fiscal regimes internationally
• Petroleum contracts – framework, production sharing contracts, joint operating agreements, accounting, gas sales contracts
• Gas and LNG – optimising field development, gas pipelines, LNG storage and transport, market development, future trends.

By its nature, natural gas presents transport and marketing challenges that crude oil producers never need worry about. Gas, for example, requires a network of pipelines, and the alternative, liquefied natural gas (LNG), evaporates while in storage. This course looks at such issues systematically, examining each link in the ‘gas chain’ between the extraction of gas and its delivery. Delegates of any background will learn enough to be able to converse knowledgeably with colleagues and clients about gas and LNG.

Topics include:

• Characteristics – density and purity of LNG, gas as a ‘commodity’, infrastructure, role of governments, greenhouse impacts
• Transmission – pipelines, shipping, sizes and distances, when to liquefy?
• Manufacture and handling of LNG – low temperature issues, economies of scale, safety
• The LNG Project – key factors in success, competitive forces, options for players and newcomers
• Future trends – Australia’s situation, integration in US and Europe, 21st century as the ‘century of gas’.

It is highly desirable that non-technical personnel working in the petroleum industry acquire a practical basic understanding of the industry in an interesting and effective manner. This will be conveyed in an integrated fashion by looking at the ‘big picture’ of oil and gas exploration, reservoir fundamentals, drilling and completion of oil and gas wells, and production of hydrocarbons. Participation in the course should result in greater job confidence, enthusiasm and productivity.

Topics include:

• The oil and gas industry worldwide, historical development and projected future, global distribution of oil and gas, alternative sources of energy
• Sedimentary basins, reservoir characteristics
• Data recovery, coring, logging and testing, data integration and evaluation, reserve estimates
• Formation and migration of oil and gas, hydrocarbon exploration techniques
• Drilling and completion of oil and gas wells, production techniques, enhanced hydrocarbon recovery, the environment.

This one day course is specifically tailored for those working in the oil and gas industry that have no technical background. This course is also recommended for anyone wishing to gain an insight into the oil and gas industry, especially investors.

Topics include:

• How was oil and gas generated, how did it migrate and get trapped?
• The earth’s geological structure.
• The formation of land and sea.
• The origin of oil and gas.
• Source rocks for oil and gas.
• The nature and condition of the rocks where oil and gas is generated.
• How organic matter is decomposed under pressure and temperature.
• Oil and gas migration.
• Oil and gas traps.
• Reservoir description.
• Techniques of locating oil and gas resources.
• Exploration drilling.
• Measuring oil and gas reserves.
• The techniques used to estimate how much oil or gas can be recovered commercially from a reservoir.
• Uncertainty and reserves estimates.
• Drilling and completion technology.
• What different types of well can be drilled and under what circumstances.
• Drilling to discover oil and gas – the methods, the costs and the uncertainties.
• Completion and production techniques.

Joint venture partners in an oil or gas field will usually appoint one of the partners as the operator. The operator then engages contractors to carry out services such as drilling and construction, each of which requires a service contract between the operator and the contractor. This course looks at contracts from start to finish – focusing on the commercial issues for each party, risk control, protection of innovations generated by contractors, and ongoing contract administration.

Topics include:

• Contractor selection – tendering, bidding strategies, bid evaluation, bid variations
• Obligations of parties – special and general conditions, industry precedents, force majeure events
• Liability and risk control – surface and downhole conditions, environmental considerations, insurance, warranties
• Technology development – proprietary information, patent rights, technology licensing, confidentiality.

Natural gas development requires major infrastructure, so projects are only feasible if long-term contracts can be reached. This course takes the same long-term view – examining the types of industry contracts, how contracts are drafted, and ongoing contract management. As a final exercise, delegates apply the knowledge they have gained in generating a computer simulation that demonstrates the link between transportation costs and the price paid for gas.

Topics include:

• Commercial issues – relationship of market load to reservoir characteristics, project feasibility analysis, selection of the most appropriate contract
• Contract formulation – take-or-pay thresholds, accounting, transportation agreements, tariffs, reserving pipeline capacity
• Contract administration – force majeure impacts on take-or-pay, measuring gas quality, gas delivery procedures for multiple pipeline users, preparing invoices.

Natural gas development requires major infrastructure, so projects are only feasible if long-term contracts can be reached. This course takes the same long-term view – examining the types of industry contracts, how contracts are drafted, and ongoing contract management. As a final exercise, delegates apply the knowledge they have gained in generating a computer simulation that demonstrates the link between transportation costs and the price paid for gas.

Topics include:

• Commercial issues – relationship of market load to reservoir characteristics, project feasibility analysis, selection of the most appropriate contract
• Contract formulation – take-or-pay thresholds, accounting, transportation agreements, tariffs, reserving pipeline capacity
• Contract administration – force majeure impacts on take-or-pay, measuring gas quality, gas delivery procedures for multiple pipeline users, preparing invoices.

With billions spent every day, it is clear that economics drives the oil and gas industry. But how exactly does a company assess the economic viability of an oil or gas investment? This course answers this question in four steps: cash flow of a project, including the effects of tax and production sharing contracts; economic indicators, such as net present value and rate of return; risk analysis – how to take into account investment uncertainties; and fiscal analysis – the effect of government regimes on return on investment. It is presented in a practical manner that makes the steps of the process clear to all.

Topics include:

• Cash flow – including the effects of taxation, production sharing, depreciation, inflation
• Economic indicators – net present value, rate of return, payback, profit-to-investment ratios
• Risk analysis – probability, expected value, decision trees, value of information, sensitivity analysis, Monte Carlo analysis, reserves distributions, portfolio analysis
• Fiscal analysis – government take, fiscal regimes worldwide, example analyses.

This course shows how to assess the performance and potential of a gas or oil field. It begins by looking at field characteristics – the rock and fluids present – and examines the balance of these materials and fluid flows within the field. The various drivers of fluid flows, such as gas and water, are then discussed. The course culminates in a hands-on exercise in which delegates devise a computer model of a field’s potential over time.

Topics include:

• Rock and fluid properties and reservoir volumetrics – core analysis, hydrocarbon classification, distribution of fluids, determining oil-water and gas-oil contacts
• Fluid flow and material balance – steady-state and transient flow, inflow for horizontal and vertical wells, displacement efficiency, immiscible displacement concepts
• Effects of various drive mechanisms – solution gas, water, gas-cap, compaction, combination.

In the first third of this century the amount of energy equivalence in gas is predicted to overtake that of oil. Currently Offshore Production amount to 25% of the worlds total production and this is expected to rise to some 40% by 2015.

Topics include:

• Introduction
• Current Production Technologies for Gas
• Offshore Topsides Gas Processing
• LNG Technologies
• Floating LNG
• Floating Gas-to-Liquids (GTL) and Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) Possibilities
• Gas containing Carbon Dioxide
• Case Studies of Gas Field Developments

This course is not a formal presentation of Project Management techniques for the Oil and Gas Industry; instead it is a guide as to important Issues that Management must consider as part of the Oil and Gas activities. It is taken from the experience of the presenter working both in a very large Oil company and in a small project oriented Field development consultancy group.

Topics include:

• Interactions with Government Organisations
• Project Management Issues
• Management of Emergency and Crisis
• Management of Environmental Issues
• Overview of the Management and Inputs to the Field Development Process
• Economic Concepts
• Cost Reduction Approaches
• Management of Procurement Activities

The course examines in some detail the key Standards as they apply to oil and/or gas project involving accounts of companies established outside of the USA. For US companies, there is a project to harmonise the US Standards with the IFRS, so US companies also need to understand the detail of the new IFRS.

Focus is on project capex, including exploration, production and rehabilitation and booking income and trading stock issues, along with a comparison of the acquisition of a company owning a project and a direct interest in an operating project.

The programme is designed to familiarise geologists, geophysicists, engineers and all other personnel involved in using log, core and test data to evaluate the commercial potential of a reservoir.
Topics include:

• Petrophysical measurements and their significance
• Basic well log interpretation
• Detailed well log interpretation
• Potential reservoirs
• Hands-on work with suites of logs

This course will introduce the participants to oil and gas exploration by providing an understanding of the fundamental principles of today’s petroleum exploration developed from the early important breakthroughs in technology to 3-D seismic.

The course is geared for the practical explorationist, the analyst, or the layman.

Topics include:

• Reservoir geometry and quality
• Seals
• Source rock and migration
• Traps and structural integrity.

Interpreting oil company and media reports on oil and gas activities including example submissions to the ASX and company reports

Topics include:

• Exploration techniques
• Delineation of a prospective oil/gas field
• The role of key players in an efficient drilling operation
• Drilling terminology
• Interpretation of a drilling report
• Well completion operations
• Terminology
• Stimulation methods
• Workover operations
• Production processes and terminology
• Onshore and offshore operations