G01 – Hydraulic Fracturing and Shale Gas
This course aims to connect what happens in the shale reservoir to what you do at the well and how you judge the outcome, so you can make solid development calls with confidence in the real world.
£299.00
20 hours
Focused, self-paced learning designed to fit around professional schedules.
Online, self-paced
Study online at a pace that fits your schedule.
10 sections
Structured curriculum sections.
English
Language of instruction for this course.
Quiz count: 8 total
Knowledge checks and assessed activities.
42 lessons
Focused lessons organised into a clear learning path.
Course overview
Designed for: engineering graduates looking for refresher courses in niche expert areas.
Entry requirements: an engineering degree or equivalent experience, plus a basic familiarity with petroleum, drilling, completion or production engineering.
Learning format: self-paced online lessons with audio read-out, worked examples, interactive scenarios, case studies, flip-card recall exercises, in-lesson checks, an AI tutor that guides rather than gives answers, and graded quizzes. This suits the aim because you can work at your own pace and practise each decision on realistic well situations before moving on.
What you will learn
Explain how shale reservoirs, well architecture, and stimulation mechanisms support unconventional gas production.
Interpret key inputs used to plan hydraulic-fracturing treatments, including rock, fluid, completion, and pressure data.
Apply basic workflows for fluid selection, proppant scheduling, pressure monitoring, and treatment execution.
Analyze diagnostic, production, and operational data to identify treatment performance and potential failure modes.
Evaluate shale-gas development decisions using safety, environmental, regulatory, economic, and operational criteria.
Skills and knowledge
Shale reservoirs
Hydraulic-fracturing design
Completion operations
Proppant and fluids
Wellsite safety
Production evaluation
Environmental controls
Course curriculum
Shale Gas Foundations
1.1 Welcome
Reservoir and Well Context
2.1 Shale Rock and Pore Networks
2.2 Horizontal Well Architecture
2.3 Quiz 1 (quiz)
Fracturing Mechanisms
3.1 Creating Hydraulic Fractures
3.2 Stress and Fracture Direction
3.3 Fracture Height and Growth
3.4 Natural Fracture Interaction
3.5 Quiz 2 (quiz)
Treatment Design
4.1 Designing the Treatment Basis
4.2 Selecting Fracturing Fluids
4.3 Choosing Proppant Systems
4.4 Building a Pump Schedule
4.5 Quiz 3 (quiz)
4.6 Modeling Treatment Outcomes
4.7 Treatment design check
Completion and Well Preparation
5.1 Preparing the Wellbore
5.2 Perforation and Cluster Strategy
5.3 Completion readiness case study
5.4 Quiz 4 (quiz)
Field Treatment Operations
6.1 Organizing the Fracturing Spread
6.2 Blending Fluids and Additives
6.3 Executing the Pumping Sequence
6.4 Monitoring Pressure and Rate
6.5 Quiz 5 (quiz)
6.6 Responding to Treatment Deviations
6.7 Coordinating People and Equipment
6.8 Closing the Treatment Safely
Flowback and Production Start-Up
7.1 Managing Initial Flowback
7.2 Handling Produced Fluids
7.3 Transitioning to Gas Sales
7.4 Quiz 6 (quiz)
Diagnostics and Performance
8.1 Reading Treatment Data
8.2 Using Fracture Diagnostics
8.3 Evaluating Gas Production
8.4 Quiz 7 (quiz)
8.5 Performance interpretation check
Safety and Environmental Stewardship
9.1 Managing Major Operational Hazards
9.2 Protecting Water and Land
9.3 Environmental controls case study
9.4 Quiz 8 (quiz)
Integrated Development Decisions
10.1 Key Takeaways
Ready to enrol?
£299.00