The IWCF Level 2 Certificate and This Course

What IWCF Level 2 is

The International Well Control Forum (IWCF) is a not-for-profit membership organisation set up in 1992. It sets standards for well control training and assessment and certifies candidates through accredited training centres and assessment centres around the world. Its Drilling Well Control programme has three certified levels, 2, 3 and 4, above a free online awareness programme called Level 1.

Level 2 is the introductory certified level. It is for people who work on or around a drilling well and whose actions influence well integrity, but who do not operate the well control equipment themselves: roughnecks and derrickmen, mud loggers and mud engineers, rig mechanics and electricians, wellsite geologists, and office-based engineers who plan the well or follow it from town. IWCF allows the learning to be taken online or in a classroom; the written assessment is always arranged through an accredited centre, face to face or, where the centre offers it, invigilated online. Check IWCF's current candidate information for how Level 2 is delivered where you are.

What this course is, and what it is not

• It is a structured review of the Level 2 syllabus, Principles and Procedures first and Equipment second, at the depth a Level 2 candidate is assessed at, with practice questions written for this course.
• It is not an IWCF-accredited course, and the module quizzes are not IWCF assessments. Your result here is a course completion record and nothing more.
• It is not a replacement for your rig's well control procedures, standing orders or drills. Where this course says "typically", your rig's documents say exactly.
• It does not contain real IWCF questions. Every practice question is original. IWCF keeps its question banks confidential, and nobody can honestly offer "recalled" questions.

The course prepares you. IWCF's accredited centres train and assess. IWCF certifies. Keep the three verbs apart and you will never be misled by any provider's advertising, including ours.

Fees, booking, validity and revalidation: check with IWCF

IWCF and its accredited centres set the booking rules, the fees, the identification you must bring, the length of each paper and the number of questions. These change from time to time, so this course does not repeat them. Read IWCF's current candidate information before you book, and again in the week before your assessment.

IWCF's programme pages give a validity of five years for the Level 2 certificate, and two years for Levels 3 and 4, after which the holder is reassessed; check IWCF's current information, because validity periods can change. Treat the certificate as a snapshot of competence on the day, not a permanent qualification. Your employer decides which level each role must hold; many operators follow the training matrix recommended in IOGP Report 476 after the Macondo blowout of 2010.