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The Mastering Heavy Oil Production Course gives reservoir, production, and facilities engineering professionals a comprehensive, technically rigorous understanding of heavy oil — covering reservoir characterisation, primary and enhanced recovery techniques, production optimisation, operational challenges, and the emerging technologies shaping the future of heavy oil development.
Heavy oil represents a significant and growing share of global hydrocarbon reserves — and its production presents unique technical, operational, and environmental challenges that conventional oil production knowledge alone cannot address. From managing high-viscosity fluid flow and emulsion formation, through CHOPS, SAGD, VAPEX, and in-situ combustion, to integrated asset management and regulatory compliance, professionals working in heavy oil need a depth of specialised knowledge that this course delivers directly.
Across five focused days, delegates move from heavy oil geology and reservoir fundamentals through extraction technologies, production optimisation, operational risk management, and emerging breakthroughs — building the complete technical and strategic capability needed to manage heavy oil assets effectively throughout their production lifecycle.
The Mastering Heavy Oil Production Course is built for professionals who want the technical depth, operational insight, and forward-looking awareness to contribute meaningfully to heavy oil field performance and strategy.
The Mastering Heavy Oil Production Course is designed to develop comprehensive heavy oil production capability from reservoir characterisation and extraction technology selection through production optimisation, operational challenge management, and future technology evaluation.
By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
The Mastering Heavy Oil Production Course is designed for reservoir, production, and facilities engineering professionals who work with or are responsible for heavy oil assets — and who need the specialised technical knowledge and operational insight to manage heavy oil production effectively.
This course is suitable for:
The Mastering Heavy Oil Production Course is delivered through a technically structured, progressively building learning approach that moves from heavy oil reservoir fundamentals through extraction technologies, production optimisation, operational challenge management, and future technology evaluation. Each day addresses a distinct dimension of heavy oil production building a complete, integrated understanding of the full heavy oil development lifecycle.
Case studies and best practices from global heavy oil operations are integrated throughout ensuring delegates connect technical frameworks to the real-world production challenges and commercial realities of heavy oil asset management.
Delivery methods include:
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This course is designed for reservoir engineers, production engineers, facilities professionals, EOR specialists, drilling and completions engineers, asset managers, and HSE professionals who work with or are responsible for heavy oil assets. It is suitable for both experienced professionals deepening their heavy oil technical knowledge and those newer to heavy oil production who need a comprehensive, technically rigorous foundation across the full heavy oil development lifecycle.
Day 2 covers the full spectrum of heavy oil extraction technologies comparing primary methods including CHOPS, steam flooding, and CSS alongside secondary and tertiary EOR techniques including SAGD, VAPEX, and in-situ combustion. Delegates develop the ability to evaluate each technology against specific reservoir properties — viscosity, depth, pressure, thickness, and thermal sensitivity — and to make structured, technically informed extraction strategy recommendations for different heavy oil reservoir types.
Day 4 dedicates full focus to heavy oil operational challenges covering viscosity management, emulsion treatment, water cut handling, transportation and pipeline considerations for high-viscosity crude, and the safety and risk mitigation strategies specific to heavy oil operations. Delegates develop a structured approach to identifying and managing the operational challenges that consistently create the greatest cost, safety, and production performance risks in heavy oil field operations.
Day 1 covers heavy oil geology and reservoir fundamentals in full including the global reserve distribution of heavy oil, the geological formation mechanisms and depositional environments that create heavy oil accumulations, and the reservoir engineering properties of porosity, permeability, and fluid flow that distinguish heavy oil reservoirs from conventional systems. Delegates develop the reservoir characterisation understanding needed to evaluate heavy oil field potential and design technically appropriate recovery strategies.
Day 3 focuses on production optimisation — covering reservoir management approaches, well spacing design, artificial lift system selection for high-viscosity fluids, wellbore and surface facility considerations, and integrated asset management approaches for maximising production efficiency. Delegates work through case studies and best practices from global heavy oil operations leaving with a practical optimisation toolkit directly applicable to their own heavy oil asset management responsibilities.
SAGD is covered within Day 2 as one of the most commercially significant and widely applied thermal EOR techniques for heavy oil and oil sands production. Delegates learn how SAGD works mechanically, what reservoir conditions are required for effective application, how SAGD well pairs are designed and operated, and what the key operational parameters are that determine SAGD recovery efficiency and steam-to-oil ratio performance — giving them a thorough technical understanding of the technique that dominates many major heavy oil basins.
