In-depth courses taught by industry-recognized engineers who work at the leading edge of oilfield technology..

BLADE ENERGY PARTNERS provides unbiased upstream expertise to help operating companies maximize their return on reserves and assets. Our international team of engineers, scientists, and project managers deliver optimum solutions to the most complex problems encountered in today's upstream energy industry. Their continuously updated expertise and experience is available to the industry through a series of multi-day classroom training courses that combine technical presentations with hands-on exercises. Each year, Blade offers most or all of these courses described below, at venues around the globe. In addition, any of the courses can be customized for private company training. All Blade courses encompass the latest safety and environmental considerations in design and operations.

current courses:
Introduction to Casing & Tubing Design

This introductory level course explains the fundamentals of casing design. It describes the function of casing and tubing strings and the data needed for a design. It provides a consistent and systematic approach to casing design and covers the applications and limitations of the methods and formulas used.

The course is designed for entry-level engineers who need to understand the basics of well design. It will also benefit staff members who are responsible for purchasing or handling oilfield tubulars.

Participants learn how to select sizes and setting depths to achieve well objectives, determine casing loads for design purposes, and design casing properties to meet burst, collapse and tensile strength requirements. They also learn the basics of casing-installation operations.

Advanced Casing & Tubing Design

This unique course is the first to address advanced concepts and issues common to HPHT, deepwater, extended-reach, and other critical wells. Participants learn how to use state-of-the-art tools to develop non-traditional, reliability-based casing designs. The course reviews significant changes to API TR 5C3 and ISO TR 10400 well design specifications, which now use new limit-state methods to determine pipe performance properties, instead of the deterministic methods that have previously been used. Blade's new reliability-based design tools are fully aligned with these new API and ISO methods.

This course targets well design engineers and other engineers who have special interest in critical well design.

UBD Operations & Well Control

Supervision and control of underbalanced drilling (UBD) requires specialized knowledge and competencies beyond conventional drilling experience. This unique course gives participants an understanding of underbalanced well behavior by analyzing case histories and working with UBitTS, a computer-based interactive training simulator designed specifically for underbalanced operations.

The course, which complements our Advanced UBD Well Design course, helps office based and rigsite decision-makers communicate effectively and make critical decisions based on a thorough understanding of UBD dynamics, thereby improving the UBD service/rig interface, enhancing team collaboration, and improving operational performance and safety. The course was developed according to IADC's Wellcap training specification and is accredited by IADC to provide participants with UBD well control training certification.

This course targets engineers, company supervisors, toolpushers, and service company personnel who are involved in day-to-day supervision of underbalanced well operations.

Advanced UBD Well Design

Underbalanced Drilling (UBD) provides early insights to reservoir behavior and significantly enhances both initial production rates and ultimate recovery. However, to secure the full benefits of UBD and meet all safety demands, candidate reservoirs and individual wells must be properly evaluated and designed, and drilling operations must be successfully executed.

In this 4 1/2-day course, participants gain a comprehensive grounding in UBD theory and learn key project management skills required for successful project implementation, including candidate selection, feasibility studies, design, safety management, and operational practices. By the end of the course participants are able to design a UBD program and understand the function and limitations of applicable equipment and related services.

This course targets operating and service company managers, engineers, and supervisory personnel who are tasked with safely and cost effectively implementing and managing UBD projects.

Managed Pressure Drilling Design & Operations

Managed Pressure Drilling (MPD) actively controls annular pressure to enable uninterrupted drilling through formations and reservoirs that present problems related to abnormal and sub-normal pressure regimes and geomechanical stresses. Pressure control is maintained with a combination of fluid density, circulating friction, and surface pressure adjustments. MPD is an evolving technology that can solve a wide range of problems, including differential sticking, unstable formations, well-bore ballooning, lost circulation, and loss-kick situations.

In this 5-day course, participants learn about current MPD methods, discussing the advantages and disadvantages of each approach to determine which is most suitable for a particular well section. They learn how to determine a well section's "anchor point" and then to select the appropriate fluid system, set operating boundaries, specify the correct equipment, and prepare the drilling program. The course also covers project economics and analyzes numerous case studies. By the end of the course, participants will understand and apply screening criteria for MPD candidate selection, design principles for MPD wells, and the basic principles of operating an MPD well.

The course targets operating and service company managers, engineers, and supervisory personnel who are tasked with safely and cost effectively designing, implementing, and managing MPD projects.

For more information, contact Ian Davidson (281.206.2000 / training@blade-energy.com) or visit our website, blade-energy.com.