Vocabulary

  These are the vocabulary words we use for our Unit 2 Energy lessons. We realize there are many more words. We are adding to this list all the time.

 
  1.  American Petroleum Institute - oil trade organization founded in 1920 that is the leading standard setting organization for all types of oil field equipment. It is concerned with exploration, production, transportation, refining, and marketing.
  2. barge- a flat decked, shallow draft vessel, usually towed by a boat. A complete drilling rig may be assembled on a barge and the vessel used for drilling wells in lake sand in inland waters and marshes.
  3. barrel- a measure of volume for petroleum products in the United States, One barrel is the equivalent of 42 US gallons.
  4. bed- a specific layer of earth or rock that presents a contrast to other layers of different material lying above, below, or adjacent to it.
  5. bedrock- solid rock just beneath the soil.
  6. bit- the cutting or boring element used in drilling oil and gas wells. The bit consists of a cutting element and a circulating element. The cutting element is steel teeth, tungsten carbide buttons, industrial diamonds, or polycrystalline diamond compacts.
  7. block- any assembly of pulleys on a common framework.
  8. blowout- an uncontrolled low of gas, oil, or other well fluids into the atmosphere or into an underground formation.
  9. bore- the inside diameter of a pipe or a drilled hole.
  10. bore hole- a hole made by drilling or boring.
  11. clay- a term used for particles smaller than 1/256 millimeter, regardless of mineral composition.
  12. contract - a written agreement that can be enforced by law and that lists the terms under which the acts required are to be performed. A drilling contract covers such factors as the cost of drilling the well, the distribution of expenses between operator and contractor, and the type of equipment to be used.
  13. crown - the crown block or top of a derrick.
  14. crown block - an assembly mounted on beams at the top of the derrick and over which the drilling line is reeved.
  15. crude oil - unrefined liquid petroleum. It ranges in density from very light to very heavy and in color from yellow to black, and it may have a paraffin, asphalt, or mixed base.
  16. derrick - a large load bearing structure, usually of bolted construction. In drilling, the standard derrick has four legs standing at the corners of the substructure and reaching to the crown block.
  17. diamond bit - a drill bit that has small industrial diamonds embedded in its cutting surface. Cutting is performed by the rotation of the very hard diamonds over the rock surface.
  18. Drake well - the first well drilled in the United States in search of oil. It was linear Titusville, Pennsylvania.
  19. drill - to bore a hole in the earth, usually to find ad remove subsurface formation fluids such as oil and gas.
  20. drill bit - the cutting or boring element used for drilling.
  21. drill pipe - seamless steel or aluminum pipe.
  22. drill site - the location of a drilling rig.
  23. dry hole - any well that does not produce oil or gas in commercial quantities.
  24. exploration - the search for reservoirs of oil and gas, including aerial and geophysical surveys, geological studies, core testing, and drilling of wildcats.
  25. fault - a break in the earth's crust along which rocks on one side have been displaced relative to those on the other side.
  26. fault trap - a subsurface hydrocarbon trap created by faulting, in which an impermeable rock layer has moved opposite the reservoir bed or where impermeable gouge has sealed the fault and stopped fluid migration.
  27. field - a geographical area in which a number of oil or gas wells produce from a continuous reservoir. A field may refer to surface area only or to underground productive formations as well.
  28. fluid - a substance that flows and yields to any force tending to change its shape. Liquids and gases are fluids.
  29. formation - a bed or deposit composed throughout of substantially the same kind of rock. Each formation is given a name, frequently as a result of the study of the formation outcrop at the surface and sometimes based on fossils found in the formation.
  30. formation fluid - fluid (such as gas, oil, or water) that exists in a subsurface rock formation.
  31. formation fracturing - a method of stimulating production by opening new flow channels in the rock surrounding a production well. Often called a frac job.
  32. formation pressure - the force exerted by fluids in a formation, recorded in the hole at the level of the formation with the well shut in. Also called reservoir pressure or shut-in bottom hole pressure.
  33. geologist - scientist who gathers and interprets data pertaining to the rocks of the earth's crust.
  34. geology - the science of the physical history of the earth and its life, especially as recorded in the rocks of the crust.
  35. geophone - an instrument placed on the surface that detects vibrations passing through the earth's crust. It is used in conjunction with seismography.
  36. gusher - an oil well that has come in with such great pressure that the oil jets out of the well like a geyser. In reality, a gusher is a blowout and is extremely wasteful of reservoir fluids and drive energy.
  37. hoist - an arrangement of pulleys and wire rope or chain used for lifting heavy objects.
  38. hydraulic - of r relating to water or other liquid in motion.
  39. hydraulic fracturing - an operation in which a specially blended liquid is pumped down a well and into a formation under pressure high enough to cause the formation to crack open, forming passages through which oil can flow into the well bore.
  40. hydrocarbons - organic compounds of hydrogen and carbon whose densities, boiling points, and freezing points increase as their molecular weights increase. Although composed of only two elements, hydrocarbons exist in a variety of compounds, because of the strong affinity of the carbon atom for other atoms and for itself. Petroleum is a mixture of many different hydrocarbons.
  41. hydrophore - a device trailed in an array behind a boat in offshore seismic exploration that is used to detect sound reflections, convert them to electric current, and send them through a cable to recording equipment on the boat.
  42. joule - the unit of energy or work. It is equal to 1 newton - meter, which is 1 newton of force acting through a distance of 1 meter in the direction of the force.
  43. kelly - the heavy steel tubular device, suspended from the swivel through the rotary table and connected to the top joint of drill pipe to turn the drill stem as the rotary table turns. It has a bored passageway that permits fluid to be circulated into the drill stem and up the annulus, or vice versa.
  44. kick fluids - oil, gas, water, or any combination that enters the bore hole from a permeable formation.
  45. land rig - any drilling rig that is located on dry and.
  46. lens - a porous, permeable, irregularly shaped sedimentary deposit surrounded by impervious rock.
  47. liner - a string of pipe used to case open hole below existing casing.
  48. liquid - a state of matter in which the shape of the given mass depends on the containing vessel, but the volume of the mass is independent of the vessel. A liquid is a fluid that is almost incompressible.
  49. location - the place where a well is drilled, Also called well site.
  50. log - a systematic recording of data, such as a driller's log, a mud log, an electrical well log, or a nuclear log.
  51. logging devices - any of several electrical, acoustical, mechanical, or nuclear devices that are used to measure and record certain characteristics or events that occur in a well that has been o is being drilled.
  52. manifold - an accessory system of piping to a main piping system that serves to divide a flow into several parts, to combine several flows into one, or to reroute a flow to any one of several possible destinations.
  53. mast - a portable derrick that is capable of being raised as a unit.
  54. mineral rights - the rights of ownership, conveyed by deed, of gas, oil, and other minerals beneath the surface of the earth. In the United States, mineral rights are the property of the surface owner unless disposed of separately.
  55. mud - the liquid circulated through the well bore during rotary drilling operations. In addition to its function of bringing cuttings to the surface, drilling mud cools and lubricates the bit and the drill stem, protects against blowouts by holding back subsurface pressures, and deposits a mud cake o the wall of the brehole to prevent loss of fluids to the formation.
  56. mud pit - originally, an open pi dug in the ground to hold drilling fluid or waste materials discarded after the treatment of drilling mud. For some drilling operations, mud pits are used for suction to the mud pumps, settling of mud sediments, and storage of reserve mud. Steel tanks are much more commonly used for these purposes now, but they are still referred to as pits, except offshore, where "mud tanks" is preferred.
  57. mud tank - one of a series of open tanks, usually made of steel plate, through which the drilling mud is cycled to remove sand and fine sediments. Also called mud pits.
  58. natural gas - highly compressible, highly expandable mixture of hydrocarbons with a low specific gravity and occurring naturally in a gaseous form. Besides hydrocarbon gases, natural gas may contain appreciable quantities of nitrogen, helium, carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, and water vapor.
  59. newton - a unit that expresses force.
  60. nonporous - containing no interstices; having no pores
  61. nozzle - a passageway through jet bits that causes the drilling fluid to be ejected from the bit at high velocity. The jets of mud clear the bottom of the hole.
  62. offshore - that geographic area that lies seaward of the coastline. In general, the term "coastline" means the line of ordinary low water along that portion of the coast that is in direct contact with the open sea or the line marking the seaward limit of inland water.
  63. offshore drilling - drilling for oil or gas in an ocean, gulf, or sea, usually on the Outer Continental Shelf.
  64. offshore production platform - an immobile offshore structure from which wells are produced.
  65. oil - a simple or complex liquid mixture of hydrocarbons that can be refined to yield gasoline, kerosene, diesel fuel, and various other products.
  66. oil field - the surface area overlying an oil reservoir or reservoirs. The term usually includes not only the surface area, but also the reservoir, the wells, and the production equipment.
  67. oil patch - the oil field.
  68. oil sand - a sandstone that yields oil.
  69. oil seep - a surface location where oil appears, the oil having permeated its subsurface boundaries and accumulated in small pools or rivulets. Also called oil spring.
  70. oil well - a well from which oil is obtained.
  71. Outer Continental Shelf - the land seaward from areas subject to state mineral ownership to a depth of roughly 8,000 feet, beyond which mineral exploration ad development are not, at present, feasible. Boundaries of this self are set by law. In general, the term is used to describe federally controlled areas.
  72. perforate - to pierce the casing wall and cement of a well bore to provide holes through which formation of fluids may enter or to provide holes in the casing so that materials may be introduced into the annulus between the casing and the wall of the bore hole.
  73. permeability - a measure of the ease with which a fluid flows through the connecting pore spaces of a rock.
  74. permeable - allowing the passage of fluid.
  75. petroleum - a substance occurring naturally in the earth in sold, liquid, or gaseous state and composed mainly of mixtures of chemical compounds of carbon and hydrogen, with or without other nonmetallic elements such as sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.
  76. petroleum geology - the study of oil and gas bearing rock formations.
  77. pipe - a long, hollow cylinder, usually steel, through which fluids are conducted.
  78. pneumatic - operated by air pressure.
  79. porosity - the condition of being porous. The ratio of the volume of empty space to the volume of solid rock in a formation, indicating how much fluid a rock can hold.
  80. porous - having pores, or tiny openings, as in rock.
  81. pressure - the force that a fluid exerts uniformly in all directions within a vessel, a pipe, a hole in the ground,and so forth.
  82. producer - a well that produces oil or gas in commercial quantities.
  83. production - the phase of the petroleum industry that deals with bring the well fluids to the surface and separating them and with storing, gauging, and otherwise preparing the product for the pipeline. the amount of oil or gas produced in a given period.

(Not Finished. Still under construction)

 
         

 

 

 

  [Oil Primer][Bethune Home][Wired@School]