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). |