PIPELINE DICTIONARY OF TERMINOLOGY
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- A -
Accommodation Platform/Rig
An
offshore platform, or semi-submersible rig, built or
adapted to provide living quarters for drilling and production personnel.
Acreage
Land
leased for oil and gas exploration and development; usually descriptive of more
than one lease.
Additive
A
term used generally to indicate special chemicals that may be added to products
to improve their characteristics.
Air Drilling
A
rotary drilling technique in which compressed air is used instead of fluids to
circulate, or bring to the surface, bits of rock and other cuttings from the
drill bit.
Air
eliminator
A device designed to separate and remove gases
(air or vapor) from the flowing stream.
Air Injection
An
enhanced recovery technique in which air is injected into the petroleum
formation to increase reservoir pressure.
Air Lift
A
production technique in which an air balance beam pumping unit is used to lift
oil to the surface.
Air/Gas
lift
Lifting of liquids by injection, directly into
the well, of air or gas.
Alkylation
A
refining process for converting light, gaseous olefins into
high-octane gasoline components (the reverse of cracking).
All‑Levels
One obtained by submerging a stoppered sample
beaker or bottle to a point as near as possible to the draw‑off level,
then opening
the sampler and raising it at a rate such‑that it is about three‑fourths full (maximum 85 per cent) as it emerges from the liquid. An all‑levels sample is not necessarily an average sample because the tank volume may not be proportional to the depth and because the operator may not be able to raise the sampler at the variable rate required for proportionate filling. The rate of filling is proportional to the square root of the depth of immersion.
Allowables
In most producing states the production of
natural gas and oil is governed by regulations of a state agency. These
agencies after study of the characteristics of a well, establish the amount of
gas
and/or oil which can be removed from that well
each day. These quantities are "allowables "
Alloy
A
composition of two or more metals.
Anode
The point where a voltaic current enters an
electrolyte the positive pole, or the plate or other piece constituting it;
opposed to cathode.
Annulus
The
space between the drill string and the earthen wall of the well bore, or
between the production tubing and the casing.
Anticlines
Reservoir formed by folding of the rock layers or
strata with oil collecting in the crest of the dome.
API
"American Petroleum Institute",
headquarters of the API Division of Production are 300 Corrigan Tower Building,
Dallas, Texas.
API Gravity
The
universally accepted scale adopted by the American Petroleum Institute (API)
for expressing the density of liquid petroleum products. The higher the API
gravity, the lighter the oil.
API
gravity
An arbitrary scale established by the American
Petroleum institute to express gravity or density of liquid petroleum products
according to a single standard. It is expressed ln degrees API.
Appraisal Drilling
Drilling
carried out following the discovery of a new field to determine the physical
extent, amount of reserves and likely production rate of the field.
Appraisal Well
A
well drilled as part of an appraisal drilling program.
Apron
ring
The first or lowest ring of plates in a tank.
Apron
spreader
A flat place in the bottom of a gun‑barrel
spreader tank that causes fluid coming into the tank to spread out.
ARDS
The
refiner's shorthand for "atmospheric residual desulfurization," a
refining process that removes sulfur from oils.
Aromatics
Class
of hydrocarbons that have at least one benzene ring as part of their structure.
Generally describes benzene and benzene derivatives. These products are
used as components of unleaded gasolines and as feedstocks for petrochemicals
such as cyclohexane and paraxylene, both of which are used in end products like
nylons and polyesters.
Artificial Drives
Techniques
for producing oil after depletion or in lieu of natural drives; includes
waterflooding, natural gas reinjection, inert gas injection, flue gas injection
and in-situ combustion.
Artificial Lift
Any
of the techniques, other than natural drives, for bringing oil to the surface.
Associated Gas
Natural
gas found in association with oil, either dissolved in the oil or as a cap of
free gas above the oil.
Associated Liquids
Liquid
hydrocarbons found in association with natural gas.
Auxiliary
equipment
The equipment which is installed in conjunction
with a meter, such as an air eliminator, strainer, vacuum breaker, or
regulating valve, to permit or facilitate the use or operation of the meter.
Average
sample
One that consists of proportionate parts from all
sections of the container.
Aviation
gasoline (Avgas)
Gasoline made especially for piston aircraft
engines. It has a relatively high octane or performance rating and a
distillation range between 129° F and 338° F.
- B -
Babbit
Soft, easily melted metal used for bearings.
Back‑Off
To unscrew.
Back
pressure
The pressure resulting from restriction of full
natural flow of oil or gas.
Back‑Up
man
The person who holds one length of pipe while
another length is being screwed into or out of it.
Baffles
Plates which change the direction of flow of
fluids.
Ball
and seat
The main parts of the valves in a plunger seat
type oil well pumps.
Barge
Non-self-propelled
marine vessel used as cargo tankers, equipment and supply carriers, crane platforms
and support and accommodation bases in offshore drilling, and as submarine
pipe-laying vessels.
Barrel
As
the standard unit of measurement of liquids in the petroleum industry, it
contains 42 U.S. standard gallons. Abbreviated to "bbl."
Barrel
(U. S.)
A standard unit of measurement of liquid
petroleum equal to 42 U. S, standard gallons.
Barrel‑Mile
A unit of measurement of pipeline shipment of oil
which signifies one barrel moved one mile.
Barrel of Oil Equivalent (BOE)
BOE
= gas volumes divided by six and added to crude and natural gas volumes.
Barrel
wrench
A friction wrench used in repairing oil well
pumps.
Basement Rock
The
ancient rock that lies below sedimentary strata; it does not contain oil or
gas.
Base
terminal
Installation where intake end of a pipeline is
located, normally near a beachhead or port complex.
Bastard
Any equipment of nonstandard shape or size.
Batch
An integral and complete movement of one specific
type of liquid, usually designated as such when moved through a pipeline.
(Sometimes referred to as a "tender")
Batch
change
Term used to describe circumstance associated
with passage of the tail of one batch and the head of the following batch. The
term is also used to state the time of arrival or departure of a batch head at
or from a station or terminal.
Batch
head
The downstream or leading end of a batch.
Batching
Pumping shipments or tenders or batches of a
product through the line without mixing with other tenders.
Batch
number
A pipeline company's identification and reference
code designation for a batch of a particular product.
Batch
tail
The upstream end of a batch.
Battery
or bank of meters
An installation of meters connected in parallel.
Beam
The walking beam of a pumping jack or unit.
Beam
well
A well using pumping jack or unit and rods to
lift fluid.
Bean
A choke, used to regulate flow of fluid from a
well. Different sizes of beans are used for different producing rates.
Bean
back
To use a smaller size bean or choke to make the
amount of production smaller.
Bedrock
The
firm base rock to which is anchored the geological structure of interest to
petroleum geologists.
Bell
hole
A bell‑shaped hole dug beneath a pipeline
to provide room for use of tools.
Benzene
An
aromatic hydrocarbon present to a minor degree in most crude oils. Some
important products manufactured from benzene are styrene, phenol, nylon and
synthetic detergents.
Big
inch
Colloquialism for a 24‑inch crude oil line
constructed by the United States government from Texas to the East Coast during
World War II.
Bird
cage
To flatten and spread the strands in a wire rope.
Bird
dog
To pay close attention to a job or a person, or
an oil trader's helper in securing an oil or gas lease.
Blank
flange
A solid disc used to dead end a companion flange.
Blank
liner
A liner without perforations.
Blank‑Off
To close off, such as with a blank flange or bull
plug.
Blanking
device
A positive mechanical means placed in a line to
prevent flow of liquid. (Sometimes referred to simply as a "blind.")
Bleed
into
To cause a gas or liquid to mingle slowly with
another gas or liquid, usually by pressure.
Bleed
off or bleed down
Reduce pressure by letting oil or gas escape
bleed down at a slow rate.
Bleeder
A valve or pipe through which bleeding is done.
Blending
The
technique of combining two or more petroleum liquids to produce a product with
specific characteristics.
Blind
flange
A simple combined steel disc and ring inserted
between two flanges with the aid of jack screws, used to achieve positive
separation of products.
Block
A
geographical area that includes several separate oil and gas license tracts.
Block Leases
A
contract with diverse owners of separately leased oil and gas tracts that
enables an oil company to drill one or two test wells instead of one well per
tract.
Block Number
The
numerical designation assigned to offshore lease and license tracts, or subdivisions
of the tracts.
Block
valves
Gate valves found in the pipeline on either side
of a pumping station or terminal, river crossing, or other points where the
line may have to be blocked.
Blow Molding
A
plastics-forming process that uses compressed air to shape the final product by
expanding it to fit the mold.
Bob
tail
Any short truck.
Boilerhouse
A random guess (as in "boilerhousing" a
number when estimating).
Boll
weevil
Any inexperienced worker or "hand."
Bonnet
The part of a valve that packs off and encloses
the valve stem.
Boomer
A link and lever mechanism which is used to
tighten a chain holding a load on a truck.
Booster
A
pump system installed to maintain or increase pressure in pipelines so that
liquids and gases keep flowing.
Booster
station
A station whose function is to receive oil
through a main pipeline and to transmit it to the next station, It receives no
oil from any other source nor does it have a tank farm.
BOPD/BPD
Barrels
of oil per day; barrels per day.
Borings
sample
One obtained by collecting the chips made by
boring holes with a ship auger from top to bottom of the material contained in
a barrel, case, bag, or cake.
Bottoms
The
heavy portions, or fractions, of a crude oil that do not vaporize during
distillation; the accumulation of sediments, mud and water in the bottoms of
lease tanks.
Bottom-hole Assembly
The
components, together as a group, that make up the lower end of the drill string
– comprising the drill bit, drill collars, drill pipe and ancillary equipment.
Bottom‑hole
pressure
The pressure at the bottom of a well.
Bottom Out
To
reach the objective depth in drilling a well.
Bottom
sample
One obtained from the material on the bottom
surface of the tank, container, or line at its lowest point.
Bottom
water
Water occurring in a producing formation below
the oil or gas in that same formation.
Bowl
A device into which fit the slips or wedges which
support tubing.
Bradenhead
gas
Commonly called casinghead gas; gas that is
produced with oil or from the casinghead of an oil well.
Break
out
To loosen a tight joint as in line pipe or sucker
rods.
Breathing
The flow of air or gas into and out of vent lines
of a partially filled storage tank, caused primarily by temperature variations.
Bridle
The portion of a well pumping unit which connects
the horse head to the well pump.
BS&W
Basic sediment and water, generally pipeline regulation
limits the contents of BS&W to 1 per cent of the volume of oil.
Bubble
point
The temperature‑pressure condition of a
liquid under which the first vapor evolution begins.
Buck up
To tighten a threaded connection.
Buffer
batch ("kero plug")
A liquid, usually kerosene or a solvent, inserted
to separate different products with a minimum of product degradation
(contamination).
Bulk
products
Petroleum products transported and stored in
pipelines, tankers, barges, rail tank cars, and tank trucks, as distinct from
packaged products.
Bump
down
To have too long a length of rods between the
pumping jack and the pump seat so that the pump hits bottom on the downstroke.
Bump
off a well
To disconnect a pull‑rod line from a central
power unit. Same as "knock off a well."
Burn
pit
An earthen pit in which waste oil and other
materials are burned.
Bust
An error.
Butadiene
A
butane derivative that is one of the most widely used raw materials used in the
manufacture of synthetic rubber.
Butane
Refers
usually to a mixture of isobutane and normal butane. A flammable, gaseous
hydrocarbon. Used as fuel.
Bypass
A
pipe connected around a valve or other control mechanism in a flow line for the
purpose of maintaining flow during adjustments or repair work.
By-product
A
substance obtained incidentally during the manufacture or production of some
other substance.
- C -
C-store
Convenience
store.
Cage
The part of a pump valve which holds the ball to
limit its movement.
Calibrate
a volumetric or gravimetric prover
To establish the true volume of a volumetric
meter prover or the accuracy of the scale of a gravimetric prover.
Calibration
tank
A small tank of known capacity which is used in
conjunction with flow meters to measure the accuracy of the meters.
Calorimeter
An instrument which measures the amount of heat
given off by a certain quantity of fuel. In the case of El Paso Natural Gas
Company, Calorimeters are used to determine the number of BTU's which are
obtained from burning one cubic foot of gas.
Cap Rock
An
impervious layer of rock that overlies a reservoir rock, thus preventing hydro-
carbons from escaping to the surface.
Capillaries
The
minute spaces, cracks or pores in rock through which hydrocarbon fluids move in
response to natural forces.
Capping
Tightly
closing a well so that oil or natural gas cannot escape.
Carbon
The
base of all hydrocarbons; capable of combining with hydrogen in almost
numberless hydrocarbon compounds. The carbon content of a hydrocarbon determines,
to a degree, the hydrocarbon's burning characteristics and qualities.
Casing
Steel
pipe that is cemented into a well to prevent the well bore wall from caving in,
to stop drilling fluids from losing circulation and to prevent water and other
fluids from invading the well bore.
Casinghead
gasoline
Natural gasoline which is vaporized within
natural gas when it is removed from the well.
Casing Perforation
The
holes made in the liner of a finished well to allow oil or natural gas to flow into
the production tube.
Casing
pressure
Gas pressure built up between the casing and
tubing.
Casing Seat
The
lowest point at which casing is set.
Casinghead
The
top of the casing set in the well; the part of the
casing that protrudes above the surface and to which the control valves and
flow pipes are attached.
Casinghead Gas
Gas
produced with oil from an oil well as distinguished from gas from a gas well.
The casinghead gas is taken off at the top of the well or at the separator.
Casinghead Gasoline
Liquid
hydrocarbons separated from casinghead gas by the reduction of pressure at the
wellhead or by a separator or an absorption plant.
Catalyst
Substance
that aids or promotes a chemical reaction between other substances, but does
not, itself, enter into the reaction.
Catalytic Cracking
A
petroleum refining process in which heavy hydrocarbon molecules are broken down
(cracked) into lighter molecules by passing them over a suitable catalyst
(generally heated).
Cat
A crawler‑type tractor.
Cathead
A spool‑shaped attachment on a winch around
which rope is wound for hoisting and pulling.
Cathode
A negative pole of an electrolytic cell.
Catline
A hoisting or pulling line operated from a
cathead.
Cat
walk
The narrow walkway on top of a tank battery.
Caustic
A corrosive capable of eating away or destroying
matter. The term is applied to the destructive action of powerful alkalis such
as the hydroxides.
Cellar
A hole dug, usually before drilling of a well, to
allow working space for the casinghead equipment.
Cementing
The
technique of pumping cement into the space between the casing
and the well bore wall in order to hold the casing in place.
Centrifuge
An instrument for separating liquid of different
specific gravities by use of centrifugal force, used in the petroleum
laboratory for determining FW&S (free water and sediment) and solid matter
in petroleum samples.
Centrifugal
compressor
A compressor which exerts force on gas by a
spinning motion. Natural gas is fed to the center of the "impeller"
which is spinning at high speed and,
partly from the centrifugal force of the spinning and partly from the action of
the blades of the impeller, is
hurled outward to the walls of the compressor chamber.
Centrifugal
force
A force developed by the rotation of a body force
which tends to throw the body away from the center of rotation.
Centrifugal
pump
A pump consisting of one or more impellers fixed
on a rotating shaft. The liquid enters the impeller at the shaft and is
impelled outward from the center by centrifugal force at high velocity
into the volute of the pump casing.
This pump has the advantage of constant pressure.
Chase
threads
To straighten and clean threads of any kind.
Cheater
A length of pipe used to increase the leverage of
a wrench.
Check
valve