Introduction
The programme “Cybersecurity in the Oil and Gas Industry” develops professional practice in Oil and Gas. It connects the subject with workplace challenges by examining existing evidence and practices and choosing methods appropriate to the organization and its available resources.
The learning progresses from information protection and incident response to project planning and implementation control, with practical work on the oil and gas value chain and operations, process safety, barriers, and management of change, maintenance planning, work orders, and execution measurement. Participants prepare outputs to support workplace application and review the quality and results of implementation.
Learning objectives
- Assess information risks and select suitable preventive controls and a response plan in an application related to “Cybersecurity in the Oil and Gas Industry”.
- Analyze an oil and gas value chain process and connect performance to reliability and safety.
- Analyze an operational hazard scenario and review barriers and change control responsibilities.
- Build a maintenance plan and work order connecting asset criticality, resources, and documentation.
- Prepare a project plan connecting scope, time, resources, and risks.
Learning areas
1. Information Protection and Incident Response
- Inventory assets, data, accounts, services, and their interdependencies, classifying sensitivity, criticality, and accountable owners.
- Analyze threats, vulnerabilities, and potential misuse, and identify necessary controls according to risks, resources, and applicable law.
- Review identity and access management, updates, backups, and logs, and identify evidence for verifying control effectiveness.
- Build a process for incident detection, classification, containment, escalation, and evidence preservation, specifying authorized internal and external communication.
- Conduct an exercise using authorized training data and an authorized training environment, and evaluate response and recovery times, lessons learned, and a gap remediation plan. The application examines a case related to “Cybersecurity in the Oil and Gas Industry”.
2. The Oil and Gas Value Chain and Operations
- Understand the links between exploration, development, production, processing, and transportation, and define process boundaries, participants, and intended outputs.
- Read a training process diagram, identifying material and energy flows, measurement points, critical equipment, and their relationship to product quality.
- Analyze production, downtime, losses, and resource consumption data, distinguishing measurement problems from process or equipment problems.
- Define coordination requirements among operations, maintenance, safety, and contractors, and document handovers and changes under facility procedures.
- Prepare a process improvement proposal covering hypotheses, controls, resources, and review criteria, using a training case without unauthorized field operations.
3. Process Safety, Barriers, and Management of Change
- Identify sources of hazardous materials and energy and process boundaries, distinguishing process safety from individual occupational safety in the case presented.
- Analyze the sequence, causes, and consequences of a hazardous event, and identify preventive and mitigating barriers and evidence for verifying their readiness.
- Review work permits, isolation, and coordination among parties under facility procedures, and identify hold points requiring specialist approval.
- Prepare a change request identifying its rationale, risks, and effects on documents, training, and emergencies, with technical review before implementation.
- Conduct a tabletop exercise involving a hypothetical barrier failure or leak, and document escalation and response actions, lessons, and the subsequent verification plan.
4. Maintenance Planning, Work Orders, and Execution Measurement
- Inventory assets and build a hierarchy, coding system, technical data, and maintenance history, classifying criticality by safety, service, and cost.
- Select a mix of preventive, condition-based, and corrective maintenance, connecting the decision to failure modes, data, and manufacturer instructions.
- Plan the work order's scope, resources, materials, time, isolation, and permits, and define readiness conditions before scheduling.
- Organize schedules, shutdowns, and equipment handovers between operations and maintenance, recording actual work, causes, parts, and time.
- Analyze backlog, recurrence, plan compliance, and reliability, and propose documented adjustments to maintenance tasks and their frequency.
5. Project Planning and Implementation Control
- Define the project rationale, expected results, stakeholders, and success criteria, and document the scope of work and exclusions.
- Break deliverables into work packages and related activities, and estimate durations, resources, and activity dependencies.
- Prepare a schedule and cost baseline, identify delivery and review milestones, and clarify approval and escalation responsibilities.
- Analyze implementation risks, define responses and warning indicators, and control change requests and their effects on time and cost.
- Build a progress report covering variances, decisions, and lessons learned, and define procedures for accepting deliverables and closing the project.
Practical outputs
- An information asset and risk register, response plan, and recovery test.
- An oil operations process map, requirements matrix, and operating indicators.
- A register of risk scenarios and barriers, and an operational change review plan.
- A maintenance plan, work schedule, work order card, and monitoring indicators.
- A project charter, implementation schedule, and change and risk tracking register.
Who should attend
- Engineers, technicians, supervisors and operations staff whose work relates to the programme subject.
- Managers and teams working in oil and gas, according to their practical responsibilities.
- Professionals responsible for applying the outputs of “Cybersecurity in the Oil and Gas Industry” within their organizations.
Prerequisites
- Working familiarity with the programme field and the ability to discuss a professional case or challenge.
- Confirm the suitability of your experience and any specialist prerequisites with the Union before participation.
Conclusion
The programme “Cybersecurity in the Oil and Gas Industry” brings together concepts, case review and a practical application. Participants prepare steps that can be adapted to their responsibilities and organizational resources, with an indicator to follow application and review results after returning to work.
Participation arrangements and any special requests are specified in the confirmation issued by the Union.