Contact: Canada-Newfoundland and
Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board, 709-778-1400. |
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Glossary of Petroleum Terminology |
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BOP/BOP Stack: |
Blowout preventers/blowout preventer
stack - an assembly of heavy-duty valves attached to the
wellhead to control well pressure and prevent a blowout. |
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Casing: |
Steel pipe set in a well to prevent
the hole from sloughing or caving and to enable formations to be
isolated (there may be several strings of casing in a well, one
inside the other). |
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Cementing: |
Pumping a liquid slurry of cement,
water and other additives behind a string of casing to isolate
formations. |
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Completion/ Completed: |
The activities necessary to prepare
a well for the production of oil or gas or the injection of
water or gas into the reservoir. |
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Fish: |
An object lost (or stuck) in the
wellbore obstructing operations. |
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Fishing: |
Operations to recover fish. |
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Injecting: |
Injecting water or gas into the
reservoir for the purpose of maintaining reservoir pressure,
maximizing oil recovery and conserving resources. |
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Liner: |
A length of casing suspended from
the base of a previously installed casing string (a liner does
not extend back to the surface of the well). |
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Logging: |
Acquisition of downhole data using
tools run in the well, usually on wireline. |
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Perforate/ Perforating: |
Piercing the casing and cement using
shaped explosive charges to provide a flow path for formation
fluids. |
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Producing/ Production: |
Flowing oil and/or gas from a well
to the production systems. |
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Production Tree: |
An arrangement of heavy-duty valves
and fittings installed on the wellhead to control flow from the
well and/or to facilitate injection operations. |
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Reaming: |
An operation to restore a wellbore
to its original diameter (occasionally, a wellbore will cave
in). |
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Seismic kilometres: |
The total number of kilometres of
data recorded in a geophysical program. |
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Shut-in: |
A well in which the valves in the
production tree have been closed to cease production or
injection operation on a well. |
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Sidetracking: |
The operation of deviating a well
around a fish. |
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Spud: |
The initial penetration of the
ground or sea floor - the start of the drilling operation. |
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Suspension/ Suspend: |
The temporary cessation of drilling
or production operations in a well. |
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Well Workover: |
A program of work performed on an
existing well. |
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Wellbore: |
The hole drilled by the drill bit. |
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Wellhead: |
Steel equipment installed at the
surface of the well containing an assembly of heavy duty hangars
and seals (the wellhead is used to support the weight of casing
strings hung it and to contain well pressure). |