Self-paced · Interactive · No energy-industry background required
Understand how the world moves oil & gas — from the reservoir to the burner-tip.
A ground-up course in how hydrocarbons physically get from a mile underground to your stove, furnace, or fuel tank. We start with what's actually flowing, then build the network layer by layer: wells and gathering, processing plants, the long-haul pipelines and the stations that pressurize them, the city gate, and the last-mile mains — plus how operators control, inspect, and map it all.
Who this is for
Anyone who needs to understand pipeline and energy networks without being a petroleum engineer — software engineers, product folks, GIS and planning staff, project managers, new field hires, or the simply curious. If you can picture water running downhill and read a map, you have everything you need to start. Every acronym is spelled out the first time it appears.
🧭 The one mental model to carry
A pipeline network is a managed pressure gradient. Gas and liquids only move from high pressure to low pressure. Compressors and pumps top the pressure back up; regulators step it back down for safe delivery. Almost everything in this course — pipe grade, station spacing, the MAOP limit, distribution tiers — is a consequence of managing pressure. Hold onto the word pressure.
The whole domain on one page
Every module below is one branch of this single picture. Skim it now — it'll fill in, piece by piece, as you go.
The oil & gas network at a glance: from reservoir to burner-tip, and everything that keeps the pressure right along the way.
The learning path
Designed to be taken in order — each module assumes the one before it. But every page stands alone if you need to jump.
The Oil & Gas Value Chain
Upstream, midstream, downstream — follow one molecule from reservoir to burner-tip.
What Flows: Products & Properties
Crude, natural gas, and NGLs — and the properties (and units) that govern every decision.
Upstream & Gathering Systems
Wells, wellheads, and the low-pressure gathering web where the network begins.
Gas Processing & Treatment
Turning raw well fluid into clean, pipeline-quality gas and stable crude.
Transmission Pipelines & Hydraulics
The long-haul highway: diameter, pressure, MAOP, and why pressure drops along a line.
Compressor & Pump Stations
Topping the pressure back up — the engines that keep the fluid moving.
Pipe, Materials & Protection
Line-pipe grades, coatings, cathodic protection, valves, and the welds that join it all.
Metering, Regulation & Custody Transfer
Measuring flow, stepping pressure down, and the meters where money changes hands.
Gas Distribution: The Last Mile
City gate → mains → service → meter set: how gas actually reaches a building.
SCADA, Control & Operations
The control room — telemetry, line pack, and running the whole system in real time.
Pipeline Integrity, Pigging & Safety
Corrosion, smart pigs, leak detection, class locations, and how the system stays safe.
Network Inventory, GIS & the Digital Twin
Two maps of one network — spatial vs. logical — plus the KPIs that decide if a system runs well.
Vocabulary, Glossary & Capstone Quiz
The words you'll hear daily, in one place — and a final quiz across the whole course.
How to use this course
Read top to bottom
Modules build on each other. The sidebar tracks where you are and checks off what you've visited.
Play with the widgets
Drag a pressure slider, size a pipe, read a pig trace. The interactive bits are where intuition forms.
Take the quizzes
Each module ends with a quick self-check. Active recall is how this sticks — don't skip them.
Expand the deep-dives
Optional “go deeper” panels hold the extra detail for when you want it — and stay folded when you don't.
💡 Progress is saved locally
Your visited-module checkmarks live in this browser only (no account, no server). Open index.html any time to pick up where you left off.