The Premier Online Energy Training Resource
High-quality online courses designed specifically for professionals who need to keep current on technology and safety practices.
TOP Energy Training is a sponsored project from:
Bridge the knowledge gap with better courses and content
TOP Energy training courses are focused on delivering high-quality content, from expert-level instructors, without all the noise that other online courses can deliver.
Online courses are designed specifically for working professionals. Courses are structured in an easy-to-absorb format with short lessons and deeper overall course material.
Energy training courses for busy professionals
Since 2012, TOP Energy training has delivered over 42,000 hours of fundamental instruction to oil, gas, and energy professionals.
Together with leading higher education institutions, we’ve brought these foundational courses online to support professionals’ practical knowledge and application in ever-changing industries.
Oil and gas professionals
Our courses deliver a broad overview of terminology married with multi-media content and high-quality visuals to provide essential knowledge of the technical fundamentals of the industry.
Technical professionals receive a refresher on fundamentals and an introduction to the latest technical applications and practices in the industry, even if they have limited recent field experience or are at the start of their careers.
Non-technical professionals should better understand the broad technical aspects of the oil and gas business that impact their day-to-day work activity and help them quickly become contributors to multi-disciplinary teams.
State and federal employees
The technical knowledge gained in our online courses allows employees to fully appreciate environmental and human health & safety challenges. They also learn about mechanisms in development and use to protect the environment and the public sector.
Inspectors, regulators, and policymakers can better understand the upstream oil and gas industry’s latest science, engineering, and technology mechanisms.
Attorneys and legal professionals
Our courses deliver a broad overview of terminology combined with multi-media content and high-quality visuals to provide functional knowledge of industry technical fundamentals.
Oil and gas attorneys and other legal professionals can anticipate quickly understanding the fundamentals of the latest science, engineering, and technology used within the upstream side of the business.
University and high school students
Our online courses can serve as textbooks for advanced-level high school or university-level courses in petroleum-related topics (e.g., petroleum engineering, petroleum technology, or environmental science) or broad energy overview courses.
Students in the various energy fields can learn about outcomes that provide a broad, fundamental background in petroleum science, engineering, and technology.
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Essential industry courses taught by expert-level instructors
We designed our oil and gas courses to provide a firm technical foundation and allow you to work your way through different aspects of the industry.
From historical and economic contexts through environmental coordination and impacts and everything in between, our courses will set you on the road to success in the oil and gas industry.
Petroleum Geology
This course covers information starting with a broad overview of historical, economic, and scientific contexts related to modern energy exploration and production. Following an examination of “big picture” questions about the influence of energy in the world, we finish the course with regulations, leasing, and permitting to prepare you for the next course, Petroleum Engineering & Technology.
Petroleum Engineering & Technology
In this course, we dive into the mechanics and processes involved in drilling operations. Creating a safe, stable hole in the ground is the basic goal of the drilling process, but there are a variety of complex technologies and operational methods involved in creating that hole. In addition, this course discusses completions, formation evaluation, stimulation, production, decommissioning and reclamation.
Environmental Stewardship
This course examines the intersection between the oil and gas industry and the wider environment by presenting the global water cycle and energy-water nexus as well as other environmental concerns and health, safety, and security. The course ends with an overview of sustainable development as a best practice in all industrial environments.
Emerging Trends
Energy production is an ever-changing and evolving field. Covering emerging technical and industrial concerns, this course provides an overview of underground injection, carbon capture utilization and storage, induced seismicity, and subsurface containment.
Effective Communications
This course contains three lessons designed to assist learners when conversing about topics related to the oil and gas industry. These communication lessons provide knowledge and training on rhetorical strategies, knowing yourself and social networks, and how to overcome difficult situations.
Curious about the course structure? Explore a lesson for free.
Join Dr. Mike Arthur of Penn State University in our Petroleum Systems lesson. This lesson covers the fundamental elements needed for petroleum accumulation. Successful petroleum systems require the perfect timing of hydrocarbon generation, maturation, migration, and trapping.
Our expert-level instructors are some of the industry’s best
Course enrollment includes instruction from oil and gas industry experts and course curricula developed by leading universities. In addition, faculty members from numerous universities are featured in each course to provide students with their depth of knowledge and experience. Additionally, industry, environmental, government, and legal professionals lend their perspectives to each course.
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Frequently Asked Questions
The program is led by a principal investigator at each of the three universities:
- Dr. Hilary Olson, Executive Director (The University of Texas at Austin)
- Dr. Linda Battalora (Colorado School of Mines)
- Jim Ladlee (Penn State)
The initial development of the online curriculum was part of our flagship training program for oil and gas inspectors, TOPCORP. These first courses were funded by a gift from ExxonMobil and General Electric to Colorado School of Mines, The Pennsylvania State University, and The University of Texas at Austin. Ongoing funding for course updates and new curriculum has been provided by gifts to the three universities from ExxonMobil, Baker Hughes, the Environmental Defense Fund, American Petroleum Institute, Apache, Chevron, Encana, Noble, Occidental, Seneca, and the Cynthia & George Mitchell Foundation. The three universities designate a ‘gift’ when there are no specific required deliverables, no memoranda of agreement, nor any contracts as part of the funds transferred to the university.
The online course curriculum is chosen by university faculty and researchers at the three different universities, including those with expertise in environmental sciences, groundwater and surface water management, hydrogeology, structural geology, geomechanics, petroleum geology, reservoir engineering, drilling engineering, chemical engineering, petroleum engineering, geophysics, and technical communications. Using feedback from surveys and pilot classes, we have designed and created online courses for oil and gas professionals, focusing on the fundamental technology, science, and engineering of oil and gas operations.
What role do funding corporations or other entities have in setting the detailed curriculum content?
None, the detailed online course curriculum is at the sole discretion of the three universities (principal investigators and instructors).
The Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission (IOGCC) has worked with us on curriculum selection to ensure our training meets the needs of state regulatory agencies who oversee oil and gas operations throughout the United States, as well as their sister provincial agencies in Canada. Educators at the three universities are still the main inspiration for all elements of TOP Energy Training.
TOP Energy Training courses are comprised of comprehensive lessons designed by our faculty experts. Each course is filled with robust industry information, interactive tools, high-quality videos, and final assessment test to earn a certificate of completion. While an entire course gives you access to our full award-winning curriculum, you might prefer a single lesson in some cases. Individual lessons are shorter, topic-specific modules designed for knowledge boosting, and self-check quizzes. Though the self-check quizzes are designed to reinforce and assess your learning, upon completion you will not receive a certificate.
TOP Energy Training courses are continuously updated as the technology evolves and new lessons are added to stay current.
We have a demo page where you can take a look at some of our learning assets, as well as register for one of our lessons at no cost. Contact us today if you would like a demo of something in particular.
TOP Energy courses have been designed by leading energy experts from The University of Texas at Austin, Penn State University, and the Colorado School of Mines. Our faculty experts have thousands of hours of industry experience that will give you the knowledge, skills, and expertise to advance your career. Both career professionals and career hopefuls will gain new insight and information from Top Energy Training.
Each TOP Energy Training course requires approximately fifteen or more hours to complete. Individual lessons will vary.
No. At this time the only way to access TOP Energy courses is through your online account.
Yes. We are happy to help. Visit our Contact page or email us at [email protected]
At the end of each lesson, there is a short, self-check quiz to help you assess your understanding of the content. These self-check questions will prepare you for the final assessment at the end of the course. Both the self-checks and the final assessment are optional.
Yes. Any user who completes the end of lesson course assessments (self-quizzes) and passes the final assessment exam will obtain a certificate of completion. Our program managers will monitor your progress, and upon course completion, you will receive your certificate. If you have completed your courses and not received a certificate, you may contact us here.
No. Each person has their account profile and unique login username and password.
Yes, You can begin the course immediately or wait and start the course at any time. The content will be available to you 24 hours a day, seven days a week.