Program Overview
Youngstown State University’s Certificate in Oil and Gas Field Operations prepares students for hands on work across the energy, environmental, and natural resource industries. This 26 credit-hour certificate focuses on the field based skills needed to support oil and gas operations, well plugging and abandonment, environmental remediation, safety compliance, heavy equipment coordination, reclamation, and project supervision.
Build a foundation in oil and gas field operations, well plugging, safety, rig practices, cementing, wireline work, heavy equipment, and reclamation. Students gain a practical understanding of how field sites are managed from preparation and safety planning through plugging, abandonment, reporting, and restoration.
Connect your education to petroleum and natural gas, environmental remediation, underground storage, geothermal energy, hydrogen, and carbon capture. The energy industry is evolving, and employers need workers who can support both traditional field operations and emerging environmental and subsurface energy needs.
Use this certificate to add applied industry skills to majors such as engineering, environmental science, business, IT, construction, or engineering technology. Whether you want to work in the field, support operations, manage projects, analyze data, or understand compliance, this certificate helps connect your major to the energy industry.
Youngstown ] Steubenville ]Speak to a Faculty Member
Vahid Atashbari, PhD
Lead, Petroleum and Geo-Energy Initiative
Assistant Professor, Chemical Engineering Program
Rayen School of Engineering
Email: vatashbari@ysu.edu
Students learn the fundamentals of oil and gas operations, well construction, rig practices, wireline and cementing, heavy equipment, and site work. The curriculum includes hands on lab experiences tied to safety, mechanical practices, cementing, reclamation, and applied field operations.
Coursework emphasizes wellsite hazards, hydrogen sulfide awareness, fire safety, emergency response, regulatory requirements, plugging methods, reclamation, remediation, and site restoration. Students learn how field operations connect to environmental responsibility and public safety.
Students build knowledge in permits, reports, contracts, insurance, crew supervision, field communication, project economics, and cost based decisions. The certificate ends with an applied capstone that brings the full process together, from locating a well through closure documentation.
This certificate is designed to add industry specific value to several academic pathways at YSU. Oil and gas field operations require more than one type of professional. Projects may involve engineers, environmental specialists, operations managers, heavy equipment operators, data and records staff, safety personnel, compliance professionals, and field supervisors.
| Course Number | Course Title | Credits | Course Overview |
|---|---|---|---|
| ENER 1510 | Foundations of Oil, Gas, and Well Plugging Operations | 3 | Introduces the oil and gas industry, including its history, terminology, well construction, production processes, the orphaned and abandoned well issue, and the role of plugging and abandonment operations. |
| ENER 1511 | Safety, Health, and Environmental Protection in Field Operations | 2 | Covers safety and hazard recognition for well plugging and abandonment sites, including wellsite hazards, hydrogen sulfide awareness, fire safety, emergency response, first aid concepts, workplace safety, and regulatory compliance. |
| ENER 1511L | Safety, Health, and Environmental Protection Lab | 1 | Provides applied safety training for field operations, including hazard recognition, hydrogen sulfide response, fire extinguisher use, first aid and CPR, drug free workplace expectations, and off road or back road driving conditions common to wellsite access. |
| ENER 2610 | Technical Aspects of Well Plugging and Abandonment | 3 | Builds the technical foundation for plugging program design and execution, including well integrity, barrier philosophy, state and federal regulations, cement properties, volume calculations, gas migration, lost circulation zones, historic wells, urban plugging, and Class II injection well abandonment. |
| ENER 2611 | Field Operations I: Rig and Mechanical Practices | 2 | Introduces rig based and rig less plugging and abandonment operations, with emphasis on workover rigs, rig components, rigging and lifting standards, oil country tubular goods, mechanical field practices, and well control awareness. |
| ENER 2611L | Field Operations I: Rig and Mechanical Practices Lab | 2 | Provides hands on practice in mechanical field operations, including hand tools, floor hand basics, rig moves, rigging up, cutting, milling, fishing, and well cleanout procedures used before plug placement. |
| ENER 2612 | Field Operations II: Wireline and Cementing Practices | 2 | Covers wireline and cementing operations, including cased hole wireline work, cement bond log interpretation, explosives handling, perforating, pipe cutting, working under pressure, plug placement, squeeze cementing, and gas sampling. |
| ENER 2612L | Field Operations II: Wireline and Cementing Practices Lab | 2 | Provides applied lab experience in wireline and cementing practices, including cement bond log interpretation, perforating and pipe cutting concepts, cementing problems, plug integrity verification, and gas sampling procedures. |
| ENER 2613 | Heavy Equipment, Auxiliary Services, and Reclamation | 2 | Introduces the equipment, skilled trades, trucking, and reclamation activities that support plugging and abandonment work, including vac trucks, winch trucks, roustabout work, equipment operation, tank battery decommissioning, site restoration, and remediation. |
| ENER 2613L | Heavy Equipment, Auxiliary Services, and Reclamation Lab | 2 | Provides orientation level lab experience with loaders, excavators, bulldozers, oilfield pipefitting, welding and cutting, heavy equipment support, and reclamation practices used to restore well sites after plugging and abandonment. |
| ENER 2614 | Operations Management and Supervision | 3 | Focuses on the supervisory and administrative side of field operations, including permits, reports, regulatory frameworks, leases, rights of way, road use agreements, contracts, insurance, prevailing wage, project economics, crew supervision, field communication, and accident investigation. |
| ENER 2619 | Applied Capstone in Well Plugging Operations | 2 | Brings the certificate together through applied case studies and a supervised field simulation, covering well location, historical records, regulatory databases, fishing techniques, environmental and community protection, NORM and T-NORM awareness, streams and wetlands considerations, CCUS applications, and closure documentation. |
| Total Certificate Credits | 26 |
