Project Risk, Economics and Decision-Making Course (Online / Remote)
1Summary
Every major project decision — greenlighting a field development, choosing between competing investments, setting a budget contingency — comes down to the same underlying question: what's the risk-adjusted economic case, and how confident can we be in it?
The Project Risk, Economics and Decision-Making course from the Arab British Fellowship Training Academy gives participants the analytical toolkit to answer that question with rigour: cost-benefit analysis, financial risk valuation, decision-tree and Monte Carlo methods, and the practical frameworks decision-makers lean on in dynamic, uncertain environments. Participants start from first principles — inflation, interest, and the time value of money — before building up to full economic evaluations backed by spreadsheet and simulation tools.
2Objectives and target group
Who Should Attend?
Anyone whose role touches project investment decisions, including:
- Planning, project, and commercial managers, plus project management professionals.
- Analysts, economists, and business advisors.
- Geologists, E&P managers, and product managers.
- Government officials and asset managers involved in project evaluation.
What You'll Gain
Delivered through slides, short videos, active class discussion, and hands-on work in Microsoft Excel's risk module, the course builds participants' ability to:
- Handle uncertainty in projects using expected-value concepts, decision-tree analysis, and expectancy theory, including risk aversion and risk premium.
- Use spreadsheet and simulation software to model project risk with confidence.
- Assess project cash flow with standard economic indicators when comparing competing alternatives.
- Run a complete economic evaluation of a project, including risk and sensitivity analysis.
- Improve decision-making, cost optimisation, and strategic planning based on risk-adjusted evidence.
- Increase project success rates by spotting risk early and adapting faster.
3Course Content
Module 1: Foundations — Economics, Cost Models and Risk Types
- Key principles of project economics and financial models.
- Cost-estimation techniques and life-cycle cost analysis.
- Types of project risk: technical, financial, operational, and more.
Module 2: Financial Evaluation Essentials: NPV, IRR and Payback
- Net present value (NPV) and internal rate of return (IRR).
- Payback period and profitability index.
- Cash-flow analysis and financial forecasting.
Module 3: Decision-Making Under Uncertainty
- Decision trees and probability analysis.
- Monte Carlo simulation and scenario analysis.
- Sensitivity analysis and what-if scenarios.
Module 4: Identifying, Assessing and Mitigating Risk
- Risk identification, assessment, and prioritisation techniques.
- Developing risk-response strategies.
- Implementing risk monitoring and control measures, with case studies on successful mitigation.
Module 5: Managing Risk Across a Project Portfolio
- Risk-adjusted return on investment (ROI).
- Strategic decision-making in portfolio management.
- Balancing risk and reward across multi-project environments.