The Short Answer
All three are credible providers of technical oil and gas training, and they are built for different buyers. PetroSkills is an operator-founded consortium with the deepest instructor-led catalogue and a US continuing-education footing. IHRDC is the strongest e-learning and competency-management platform, running since 1969. Mobility Oil and Gas is the smaller, UK-accredited specialist with published pricing and the most flexible bespoke delivery.
If you need a US PDH and CEU trail across a very large cohort, PetroSkills fits. If you need a scalable digital library plus a competency management system, IHRDC fits. If you need independently accredited certificates, transparent costs, and a programme shaped around your specific skills gaps, that is where we compete.
Most people reach this page at the same point in the process. A skills gap has been signed off, a budget exists, and procurement wants a shortlist with a defensible reason for the choice. The three names below come up constantly on that shortlist.
We are one of the three, so read this with that in mind. What follows is an honest account of what each provider publishes about itself, including the parts where the other two are the better answer. Every factual claim here comes from the providers’ own public material, checked in July 2026. Where a provider does not publish something, we say so rather than guessing.
Side by Side Comparison
| Mobility Oil and Gas | PetroSkills | IHRDC | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Founded | UK registered, London headquartered | 2001, by Shell, BP and OGCI | 1969 |
| Ownership model | Independent provider | Operator-backed consortium, part of The Competency Alliance | Independent corporation, Boston |
| Independent accreditation | British Accreditation Council (Short Course Provider) and CPD Standards Office London. UKRLP 10047196 | Not stated. Course hours can count toward PDH in most US states and CEUs in the US and internationally | Not stated |
| Catalogue | 200+ courses across 13 discipline hubs, plus two diploma programmes | “Hundreds” of instructor-led courses, plus eLearning and books | 1,000+ E&P courses, 6,500+ microlearning items, plus instructor-led programmes |
| Standard format | Five-day intensive; six-month diplomas | Varies by course | Two to five days for instructor-led |
| Delivery | Classroom, online, in-house, bespoke | Classroom, virtual instructor-led, eLearning, in-house | In-person, virtual, e-learning, mobile app |
| Public venues | London, Houston, Dubai, plus online | Worldwide locations, not individually listed | Boston Executive Training Center, plus London and Dubai |
| Published pricing | Yes. From $5,250 per attendee for short courses; $14,500 excl. VAT for the six-month diploma | Not published. Tuition includes PetroAcademy access and materials for one year, plus a $150 non-refundable registration fee per five days or less | Not published. Attendees also cover travel and living costs |
| Competency management software | No | Yes, Ability learning management system and operator training simulators | Yes, CMS Online |
| Consultancy beyond training | Yes, petroleum engineering consultancy and well management | Competency mapping and programme management | Competency management consulting |
The row that matters most in procurement is usually the accreditation row, and it is the one most often misread. It is worth unpacking properly.
Accreditation Works Differently in the US and the UK
None of the three providers is unaccredited. They sit in two different systems, and which one you need depends entirely on who has to accept the certificate at the other end.
The US route is continuing education. PetroSkills states that its course hours can be used to satisfy Professional Development Hours for licensed engineers in most US states, and in many cases Continuing Education Units both in the US and internationally. For a licensed Professional Engineer in Texas or Louisiana renewing a licence, that is the relevant currency, and it is the practical thing to check.
The UK route is independent provider accreditation. Mobility is accredited by the British Accreditation Council as a short course provider and by the CPD Standards Office London, and is on the UK Register of Learning Providers under number 10047196. Those are third-party bodies that inspect the provider itself, not just the course hours, and all three can be verified without asking us.
Neither PetroSkills nor IHRDC publishes an independent accrediting body on its website. That is not a criticism. Both are long-established, and PetroSkills in particular was founded by Shell, BP and OGCI and counts operators including Chevron, Saudi Aramco, ConocoPhillips and Woodside among its member companies, which is its own form of assurance. It does mean that if your competency framework or HR policy requires a named external accreditor, you need to ask each provider for it directly rather than assume.
Regional schemes add another layer. In Nigeria, for example, the local content regime brings its own trainer-registration requirements on top of anything international, which we cover in the guide to NCDMB funding and choosing a provider in Nigeria. Check what applies in the country where the certificate has to be accepted, not just where the course is delivered.
- Ask who accredits the provider, not just what the certificate says. Get the body named in writing.
- Ask whether the hours count toward the specific scheme your engineers use, whether that is a US state PE licence, a chartership body, or an internal competency matrix.
- Ask whether online carries the same weight as classroom. With some providers it does not.
- Verify the accreditor independently. BAC, the CPD Standards Office and UKRLP all have public registers.
What Each Provider Actually Costs
One clear difference: only one of the three publishes prices.
PetroSkills does not list tuition on its site. It does publish what tuition includes, which is the course itself, PetroAcademy software and digital course material for one year, daily refreshments, and a $150 non-refundable registration fee per five days of training or less. Living costs are excluded. IHRDC does not publish fees either, and states that attendees are responsible for their own travel and living expenses.
Mobility publishes from $5,250 per attendee for the five-day short courses and $14,500 excl. VAT for the six-month Diploma in Petroleum Engineering Technology. Volume and group discounts apply, and in-house delivery is quoted per engagement.
Published pricing is not automatically the cheaper option, and we would not claim it is. What it does is shorten your procurement cycle. If you are building a budget case and need a defensible number before you can get a purchase order raised, a published figure saves you a round of enquiry emails. If you are running a formal RFQ across several providers anyway, that advantage largely disappears. Our own rates are on the individual course pages in the course directory, and in-house delivery is quoted per engagement.
Online, Classroom or In-House: How Delivery Compares
All three deliver online, and all three deliver in person. The differences are in what “online” actually means, because the word covers two very different products.
Self-paced e-learning is content you work through alone, on your own schedule. IHRDC is the strongest of the three here by a distance, with 1,000+ E&P courses, 6,500+ short microlearning items and a mobile app. PetroSkills also offers eLearning alongside its classroom catalogue. Mobility does not sell a self-paced library.
Live virtual instructor-led is the classroom course run remotely, with a real instructor and other delegates in the room. All three offer it. This is the format most working engineers actually want, because it keeps the discussion and the worked exercises while removing the travel and the visa problem.
The question worth asking is whether the online version carries the same certificate as the classroom version. With Mobility it does: the five-day courses run online or at the London, Houston and Dubai hubs with identical accreditation either way. Confirm the same with any provider before you book, because it is not universal.
In-house is the third route and usually the cheapest per head once you are past about six attendees. All three offer it. What differs is how much is genuinely redesigned rather than relocated, which is the distinction between standard in-house training and a properly bespoke programme built around your declared skills gaps.
What You Can Check for Free Before You Commit
Every provider will send you a brochure. The more useful test is what you can inspect without talking to a salesperson.
- IHRDC publishes a public technical glossary and a long-running blog covering everything from permeability to green ammonia. If you want to sample the house style of the explanations before buying, it is all there.
- PetroSkills publishes its instructor-led course guide as a downloadable catalogue, so you can see the full syllabus range without an enquiry.
- Mobility publishes the day-by-day content, objectives, who-should-attend and CPD hours on every course page, plus prices, our client list and unedited attendee testimonials.
If a provider will not show you a syllabus or a price without a sales call, that is information too. It usually means the number moves depending on who is asking.
When PetroSkills Is the Right Choice
- Your engineers hold US Professional Engineer licences and need documented PDH toward renewal.
- You are an operator already inside the consortium. If your company is a member, the commercial terms and the alignment with your internal competency maps are hard to beat elsewhere.
- You need operator training simulators or a learning management system supplied by the same vendor as the training.
- You are training very large numbers across many disciplines at once and want one framework covering all of it.
PetroSkills has scale and industry backing that a smaller provider cannot match. Being founded by Shell, BP and OGCI, and having major operators as member companies, means the curriculum has been shaped by the people who employ your engineers. For a large upstream operator standardising competency across regions, that is a genuine advantage and we would not pretend otherwise.
When IHRDC Is the Right Choice
- Your priority is e-learning at scale. With 1,000+ E&P courses and 6,500+ short microlearning items, the digital library is the largest of the three by a wide margin.
- You need a competency management system as a product, not a spreadsheet. CMS Online is a mature offering built for exactly this.
- You are rolling training out to a geographically scattered workforce who cannot travel to a classroom.
- You want self-paced learning on mobile alongside instructor-led sessions.
IHRDC has been running since 1969, which is longer than either of the other two, and its digital catalogue reflects decades of accumulated content. If your problem is coverage and access rather than depth on one specific competency, it is a strong answer.
When Mobility Oil and Gas Is the Right Choice
- You need an independently accredited certificate that HR and chartership bodies accept without debate, from a named body you can verify yourself.
- You are buying for a small or mid-sized team, not a thousand-person workforce, and want the programme shaped around your actual skills gaps rather than picked from a catalogue.
- You need a defensible cost figure now, before you can open a procurement file.
- You want training and petroleum engineering consultancy from the same team, including well management on live problems.
- You are an individual booking your own CPD rather than a corporate buyer. This is the hardest of the three routes to take as a self-funding professional with the other two.
We are the smallest of the three and that cuts both ways. We do not have a consortium of operators behind us or a competency management platform to sell you. What we do have is 200+ courses across 13 disciplines delivered by instructors with field experience rather than academia-only backgrounds, dual UK accreditation, and enough flexibility to build a programme around one team’s specific problem. Our client work includes ExxonMobil, Repsol, Pemex, PDVSA, Oceaneering, Kuwait Energy Egypt, Romgaz, Medco Energy Oman and ND Western in Nigeria.
The other difference is what sits either side of the training. Neither of the other two runs live engineering work. We do, through petroleum engineering consultancy and well management, which means the people writing the course material are also working current field development, reservoir and well problems. For a team whose skills gap is attached to a specific live asset, that tends to matter more than catalogue size.
For graduates and career changers rather than working professionals, the entry route is different again. The diploma programmes run over six months with lower entry requirements than an academic route, and Petroleum Engineering For Non-Engineers is the five-day option for commercial, legal and geoscience staff who work around engineers without being one.
Verify Us Before You Buy
Accredited by the British Accreditation Council as a short course provider and by the CPD Standards Office London. UK Register of Learning Providers number 10047196.
All three are public registers. We would rather you checked than took our word for it, and we would give you the same advice about any provider on your shortlist.
A Procurement Checklist for Any Provider
Whichever way you go, these are the questions that separate a shortlist on paper from a decision you can defend afterwards.
- Who is the instructor, and what did they actually do? Ask for the CV of the named instructor for your dates, not a generic faculty page. Years on the asset type you are training for is the number that matters.
- What happens on day three? A real syllabus survives that question. Module titles alone do not.
- Is the online version equivalent? Same content, same assessment, same certificate, or not.
- What is included and what is not? Materials, software access, certificate, refreshments, travel, accommodation, VAT and registration fees are treated differently by each provider.
- What is the cancellation and rescheduling policy? Turnarounds slip. Find out who absorbs that before you book.
- At what headcount does the discount trigger, and is in-house cheaper than sending people out at that number?
- Can you invoice against our procurement framework and terms?
One last thing worth saying plainly. These three are not mutually exclusive, and most large operators use more than one. A digital library for breadth, a consortium provider for standardised competency at scale, and a specialist for the deep technical gap that neither of the first two covers well is a perfectly sensible arrangement. The question is rarely which provider is best. It is which provider is right for this particular gap, this budget, and this cohort.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Mobility Oil and Gas accredited?
Yes. Mobility is accredited by the British Accreditation Council as a short course provider and by the CPD Standards Office London, and is listed on the UK Register of Learning Providers under number 10047196. All three can be checked on public registers without contacting us.
How much does PetroSkills training cost?
PetroSkills does not publish tuition on its website, so you need to request a quote. It does state that tuition covers the course, PetroAcademy software and digital materials for one year, and daily refreshments, plus a $150 non-refundable registration fee per five days of training or less. Travel and living costs are not included.
What is IHRDC and where is it based?
IHRDC is the International Human Resources Development Corporation, an energy industry training provider operating since 1969 and headquartered in Boston. Instructor-led programmes run at its Boston Executive Training Center and at public venues in London and Dubai, with e-learning and a mobile app available worldwide.
Which provider is best for a small team rather than a large workforce?
Smaller cohorts usually favour a specialist provider, because the programme can be built around the specific gap rather than selected from a standard catalogue. Consortium and platform providers are built for scale, and their strengths, standardisation and breadth, matter less when you are training six people on one competency.
Do these certificates count toward chartership?
It depends on your chartership body and where you are. CPD Standards Office recognition is designed to feed a formal CPD record for a professional body, institute or employer. In the US, PDH and CEU eligibility is the relevant test for licensed engineers. Confirm the specific scheme with the provider before booking, because the answer differs by country and by body.
Can any of them deliver training at our own site?
Yes, all three offer in-house delivery. What differs is how far the content is tailored. Ask each provider whether in-house means the standard course delivered at your office, or a programme redesigned around your assets and skills gaps, because both are commonly described as bespoke.
Are oil and gas courses online as good as classroom?
It depends which kind of online you mean. Live virtual instructor-led courses keep the instructor, the other delegates and the worked exercises, and with Mobility they carry the same accreditation as the classroom version. Self-paced e-learning is a different product, better for breadth and refreshers than for a specific technical competency. Ask whether the certificate differs by format before you book.
Get a Quote You Can Take to Procurement
Tell us the discipline, the number of attendees and the timeframe. We will come back with a costed option, the named instructor’s background, and a day-by-day syllabus you can put in front of a budget holder.
From $5,250 per attendee. Five-day intensive, classroom or online. London, Houston, Dubai, or in-house at your site. Volume and group discounts for cohorts.
Or browse the full course directory, read about in-house training, or see who we have worked with.