Air drilling

A drilling technique whereby gases (typically compressed air or nitrogen) are

used to cool the drill bit and lift cuttings out of the wellbore, instead of the
more conventional use of liquids.

Antiwhirl bit

A drill bit, usually polycrystalline diamond compact bit (PDC) type, designed
such that the individual cutting elements on the bit create a net imbalance
force.

Air cut mud

A drilling fluid (or mud) that has gas (air or natural gas) bubbles in it, resulting
in a lower bulk, unpressurized density compared with a mud not cut by gas.

Adjustable choke

A valve usually used in well control operations to reduce the pressure of a

fluid from high pressure in the closed wellbore to atmospheric pressure.

Annular BOP

A large valve used to control wellbore fluids. In this type of valve, the sealing
element resembles a large rubber doughnut that is mechanically squeezed
inward to seal on either pipe (drill collar, drillpipe, casing, or tubing) or the
openhole.

Annular velocity

The speed at which drilling fluid or cement moves in the annulus

Back off

To unscrew drillstring components downhole.

Back wash

Another term for reverse circulation, the intentional pumping of wellbore fluids
down the annulus and back up through the drillpipe. This is the opposite of the
normal direction of fluid circulation in a wellbore.

Background gas

An average or baseline measure of gas entrained in circulating mud.

Barefoot

Referring to openhole or without casing, as in barefoot completion or barefoot
drillstem test.

Basket sub

A tool run into the wellbore to retrieve junk from the bottom of the hole.

Bell nipple

An enlarged pipe at the top of a casing string that serves as a funnel to guide
drilling tools into the top of a well.

BHA

The lower portion of the drillstring, consisting of (from the bottom up in a

vertical well) the bit, bit sub, a mud motor (in certain cases), stabilizers, drill
collar, heavy-weight drillpipe, jarring devices ("jars") and crossovers for
various threadforms.

BHCT

The temperature of the circulating fluid (air, mud, cement or water) at the
bottom of the wellbore after several hours of circulation.

BHP

The pressure, usually measured in pounds per square inch (psi), at the
bottom of the hole. This pressure may be calculated in a static, fluid-filled
wellbore with the equation: BHP = MW * Depth * 0.052 where BHP is the
bottomhole pressure in pounds per square inch, MW is the mud weight in
pounds per gallon, Depth is the true vertical depth in feet, and 0.052 is a
conversion factor if these units of measure are used.

BHST

The temperature of the undisturbed formation at the final depth in a well.

Bicenter bit

An integral bit and eccentric reamer used to simultaneously drill and

underream the hole.

Bit

The tool used to crush or cut rock.

Bit box

A container, usually made of steel and fitted with a sturdy lock, to store drill
bits, especially higher cost PDC and diamond bits. These bits are extremely
costly but often small in size, so they are prone to theft.

Bit breaker

A special tool used by the rig crew to prevent the drill bit from turning while the
bit sub on top of it is tightened or loosened.

Bit nozzle

The part of the bit that includes a hole or opening for drilling fluid to exit. The
hole is usually small (around 0.25 in. in diameter) and the pressure of the fluid
inside the bit is usually high, leading to a high exit velocity through the nozzles
that creates a high-velocity jet below the nozzles.

Bit record

A historical record of how a bit performed in a particular wellbore.

Bit trip

The process of pulling the drillstring out of the wellbore for the purpose of
changing a worn or underperforming drill bit.

Blind shear ram

A blowout preventer (BOP) closing element fitted with hardened tool steel
blades designed to cut the drillpipe or tubing when the BOP is closed, and
then fully close to provide isolation or sealing of the wellbore.

Block

A set of pulleys used to gain mechanical advantage in lifting or dragging

heavy objects.

Blow out

An uncontrolled flow of reservoir fluids into the wellbore, and sometimes

catastrophically to the surface. A blowout may consist of salt water, oil, gas or
a mixture of these.

BOP

A large valve at the top of a well that may be closed if the drilling crew loses
control of formation fluids. By closing this valve (usually operated remotely via
hydraulic actuators), the drilling crew usually regains control of the reservoir,
and procedures can then be initiated to increase the mud density until it is
possible to open the BOP and retain pressure control of the formation.

Bow spring centralizer

A metal strip shaped like a hunting bow and attached to a tool or to the
outside of casing. Bow-spring centralizers are used to keep casing in the
center of a wellbore or casing ("centralized") prior to and during a cement job.

Brine

Water containing more dissolved inorganic salt than typical seawater.

Bullheading

To forcibly pump fluids into a formation, usually formation fluids that have
entered the wellbore during a well control event. Though bullheading is
intrinsically risky, it is performed if the formation fluids are suspected to
contain hydrogen sulfide gas to prevent the toxic gas from reaching the
surface. Bullheading is also performed if normal circulation cannot occur, such
as after a borehole collapse. The primary risk in bullheading is that the drilling
crew has no control over where the fluid goes and the fluid being pumped
downhole usually enters the weakest formation.

Cable tool drilling

A method of drilling whereby an impact tool or bit, suspended in the well from
a steel cable, is dropped repeatedly on the bottom of the hole to crush the
rock.

Caliper log

A representation of the measured diameter of a borehole along its depth.

Caliper logs are usually measured mechanically, with only a few using sonic
devices.

Casing

Large-diameter pipe lowered into an openhole and cemented in place. The

well designer must design casing to withstand a variety of forces, such as
collapse, burst, and tensile failure, as well as chemically aggressive brines.

Casing centralizers

A mechanical device that keeps casing from contacting the wellbore wall. A
continuous 360-degree annular space around casing allows cement to
completely seal the casing to the borehole wall.
Casing coupling

A short length of pipe used to connect two joints of casing.

Casing grade

A system of identifying and categorizing the strength of casing materials.

Since most oilfield casing is of approximately the same chemistry (typically
steel), and differs only in the heat treatment applied, the grading system
provides for standardized strengths of casing to be manufactured and used in
wellbores.

Casing head

The adapter between the first casing string and either the BOP stack (during
drilling) or the wellhead (after completion). This adapter may be threaded or
welded onto the casing, and may have a flanged or clamped connection to
match the BOP stack or wellhead.

Casing point

The location, or depth, at which drilling an interval of a particular diameter

hole ceases, so that casing of a given size can be run and cemented.

Casing shoe

The bottom of the casing string, including the cement around it, or the
equipment run at the bottom of the casing string.

Casing string

An assembled length of steel pipe configured to suit a specific wellbore. The

sections of pipe are connected and lowered into a wellbore, then cemented in
place.

Cat line

A relatively thin cable used with other equipment to move small rig and
drillstring components and to provide tension on the tongs for tightening or
loosening threaded connections.

Cat head

A clutched spool connected to the drawworks power system used to tension

chains, cables and softline rope.

Catwalk

A long, rectangular platform about 3 ft [0.9 m] high, usually made of steel and
located perpendicular to the vee-door at the bottom of the slide. This platform
is used as a staging area for rig and drillstring tools, components that are
about to be picked up and run, or components that have been run and are
being laid down.

Cellar

A dug-out area, possibly lined with wood, cement or very large diameter (6 ft
[1.8 m]) thin-wall pipe, located below the rig. The cellar serves as a cavity in
which the casing spool and casinghead reside.

Cement bond log

A representation of the integrity of the cement job, especially whether the

cement is adhering solidly to the outside of the casing. The log is typically
obtained from one of a variety of sonic-type tools.

Cement head

A device fitted to the top joint of a casing string to hold a cement plug before it
is pumped down the casing during the cementing operation.

Cementing plug

A rubber plug used to separate the cement slurry from other fluids, reducing
contamination and maintaining predictable slurry performance.

Chain tongues

A type of pipe wrench used for hand-tightening various threaded connections

around the rigsite.

Choke line

A high-pressure pipe leading from an outlet on the BOP stack to the

backpressure choke and associated manifold. During well-control operations,
the fluid under pressure in the wellbore flows out of the well through the choke
line to the choke, reducing the fluid pressure to atmospheric pressure.

Choke manifold

A set of high-pressure valves and associated piping that usually includes at

least two adjustable chokes, arranged such that one adjustable choke may be
isolated and taken out of service for repair and refurbishment while well flow is
directed through the other one.

Christmas tree

The set of valves, spools and fittings connected to the top of a well to direct
and control the flow of formation fluids from the well.
Circulation loss

The loss of drilling fluid to a formation, usually caused when the hydrostatic
head pressure of the column of drilling fluid exceeds the formation pressure.

Coiled tubing

A long, continuous length of pipe wound on a spool. The pipe is straightened

prior to pushing into a wellbore and rewound to coil the pipe back onto the
transport and storage spool.

Combination string

Another term for a tapered string: a string of drillpipe or casing that consists of
two or more sizes or weights. In most tapered strings, a larger diameter pipe
or casing is placed at the top of the wellbore and the smaller size at the
bottom.

Completion

The hardware used to optimize the production of hydrocarbons from the well.
This may range from nothing but a packer on tubing above an openhole
completion ("barefoot" completion), to a system of mechanical filtering
elements outside of perforated pipe, to a fully automated measurement and
control system that optimizes reservoir economics without human intervention
(an "intelligent" completion).

Conductor pipe

The casing string that is usually put into the well first, particularly on land
wells, to prevent the sides of the hole from caving into the wellbore.

Connection gas

A brief influx of gas that is introduced into the drilling fluid when a pipe
connection is made. Before making a connection, the driller stops the mud
pumps, thereby allowing gas to enter the wellbore at depth.

Contamination gas

Gas that is introduced into the drilling mud from a source other than the
formation. Contamination gas normally evolves as a by-product of oil-base
mud systems and those using volatile additives such as diesel fuel or other
lubricants.

Crooked hole

Antiquated term for a deviated wellbore, usually used to describe a well

deviated accidentally during the drilling process.
Cross flow

The flow of fluid across the bottom of the bit after it exits the bit nozzles,
strikes the bottom or sides of the hole and turns upwards to the annulus.
Modern, well-designed bits maximize crossflow using an asymmetric nozzle
arrangement.

Or

The flow of reservoir fluids from one zone to another. Crossflow can occur
when a lost returns event is followed by a well control event. The higher
pressured reservoir fluid flows out of the formation, travels along the wellbore
to a lower pressured formation, and then flows into the lower pressure
formation.

Crown block

The fixed set of pulleys (called sheaves) located at the top of the derrick or
mast, over which the drilling line is threaded.

Crushed zone

The rubblized rock just below the tooth of a rock bit. Rock in the crushed zone
fails due to the high compressive stress placed on it by the bit tooth (in the
case of a roller-cone bit).

Cut and thread fishing technique

A method for recovering wireline stuck in a wellbore. In cut-and-thread

operations, the wireline is gripped securely with a special tool and cut at the
surface. The cut end is threaded through a stand of drillpipe. While the pipe
hangs in the wellbore, the wireline is threaded through another stand of
drillpipe, which is screwed onto the stand in the wellbore.

Cuttings

Small pieces of rock that break away due to the action of the bit teeth.
Cuttings are screened out of the liquid mud system at the shale shakers and
are monitored for composition, size, shape, color, texture, hydrocarbon
content and other properties by the mud engineer, the mud logger and other
on-site personnel.

Day rate

The daily cost to the operator of renting the drilling rig and the associated
costs of personnel and routine supplies.
DD

A surfactant-type mud additive intended to prevent formation shales and clays

from sticking to the drilling assembly and also to prevent gumbo shale from
agglomerating and plugging the annulus and flowlines. Some DDs are
claimed to be mud lubricants that lessen the torque and drag of the drillstring
as it is rotated and moved up and down in the hole.

Degasser

A device that removes air or gases (methane, H2S, CO2 and others) from
drilling liquids.

Derrick

The structure used to support the crown blocks and the drillstring of a drilling
rig. Derricks are usually pyramidal in shape, and offer a good strength-to-
weight ratio.

Derrick floor

The relatively small work area in which the rig crew conducts operations,
usually adding or removing drillpipe to or from the drillstring.

Derrickman

One of the rig crew members who gets his name from the fact that he works
on a platform attached to the derrick or mast, typically 85 ft [26 m] above the
rig floor, during trips.

Desander

A hydrocyclone device that removes large drill solids from the whole mud
system. The desander should be located downstream of the shale shakers
and degassers, but before the desilters or mud cleaners.

Differential pressure

In general, a measurement of fluid force per unit area (measured in units such
as pounds per square in.) subtracted from a higher measurement of fluid force
per unit area. This comparison could be made between pressures outside and
inside a pipe, a pressure vessel, before and after an obstruction in a flow
path, or simply between two points along any fluid path, such as two points
along the inside of a pipe or across a packer.

Differential sticking

A condition whereby the drillstring cannot be moved (rotated or reciprocated)

along the axis of the wellbore. Differential sticking typically occurs when high-
contact forces caused by low reservoir pressures, high wellbore pressures, or
both, are exerted over a sufficiently large area of the drillstring.

Displacement fluid

The fluid, usually drilling mud, used to force a cement slurry out of the casing
string and into the annulus.

Dog leg

A particularly crooked place in a wellbore where the trajectory of the wellbore

in three-dimensional space changes rapidly. While a dogleg is sometimes
created intentionally by directional drillers, the term more commonly refers to
a section of the hole that changes direction faster than anticipated or desired,
usually with harmful side effects.

Dope

Pipe dope, a specially formulated blend of lubricating grease and fine metallic
particles that prevents thread galling (a particular form of metal-to-metal
damage) and seals the roots or void spaces of threads.

Drag bit

A drilling tool that uses polycrystalline diamond compact (PDC) cutters to

shear rock with a continuous scraping motion. These cutters are synthetic
diamond disks about 1/8-in. thick and about 1/2 to 1 in. in diameter. PDC bits
are effective at drilling shale formations, especially when used in combination
with oil-base muds.

Drawworks

The machine on the rig consisting of a large-diameter steel spool, brakes, a

power source and assorted auxiliary devices.

Drift

A term to describe the inclination from vertical of a wellbore.

Or

To guarantee the inside diameter of a pipe or other cylindrical tool by pulling a

cylinder or pipe (often called a rabbit) of known outside diameter through it.

Drill collar

A component of a drillstring that provides weight on bit for drilling. Drill collars
are thick-walled tubular pieces machined from solid bars of steel, usually plain
carbon steel but sometimes of nonmagnetic nickel-copper alloy or other
nonmagnetic premium alloys.
Drill pipe

Tubular steel conduit fitted with special threaded ends called tool joints. The
drillpipe connects the rig surface equipment with the bottomhole assembly
and the bit, both to pump drilling fluid to the bit and to be able to raise, lower
and rotate the bottomhole assembly and bit.

Drill string

The combination of the drillpipe, the bottomhole assembly and any other tools
used to make the drill bit turn at the bottom of the wellbore.

Drilling riser

A large-diameter pipe that connects the subsea BOP stack to a floating

surface rig to take mud returns to the surface. Without the riser, the mud
would simply spill out of the top of the stack onto the seafloor. The riser might
be loosely considered a temporary extension of the wellbore to the surface.

Drill ship

A maritime vessel modified to include a drilling rig and special station-keeping

equipment. The vessel is typically capable of operating in deep water.

DST

A procedure to determine the productive capacity, pressure, permeability or

extent (or a combination of these) of a hydrocarbon reservoir. While several
different proprietary hardware sets are available to accomplish this, the
common idea is to isolate the zone of interest with temporary packers.

Dry hole

A wellbore that has not encountered hydrocarbons in economically producible

quantities. Most wells contain salt water in some zones.

Dynamic positioning

The stationing of a vessel, especially a drillship or semisubmersible drilling rig,

at a specific location in the sea by the use of computer-controlled propulsion
units called thrusters.

Elevator

A hinged mechanism that may be closed around drillpipe or other drillstring

components to facilitate lowering them into the wellbore or lifting them out of
the wellbore.
Embrittlement

The process whereby steel components become less resistant to breakage

and generally much weaker in tensile strength. While embrittlement has many
causes, in the oil field it is usually the result of exposure to gaseous or
liquid hydrogen sulfide [H2S].

ERD

Abbreviation for extended-reach drilling. Mobil Oil Company first used this
term in the early 1980s for drilling directional wells in which the drilled
horizontal reach (HR) attained at total depth (TD) exceeded the true vertical
depth (TVD) by a factor greater than or equal to two. Extended-reach drilling
(ERD) is particularly challenging for directional drilling and requires
specialized planning to execute well construction.

Escape line

A steel cable attached to the rig derrick or mast near the work platform for the
derrickman. This cable is anchored at surface level (on a vessel or the Earth)
away from the mast in a loose catenary profile, and fitted with a handle and
hand brake that is stored at the top.

Exit velocity

The speed the drilling fluid attains when accelerated through bit nozzles. The
exit velocity is typically in the low-hundreds of feet per second. It has been
reported that in certain shaly formations, an impingement velocity on the order
of 250 feet per second is required to effectively remove newly created rock
chips from the bottom of the hole.

Fingerboard

The working platform approximately halfway up the derrick or mast in which

the derrickman stores drillpipe and drill collars in an orderly fashion during
trips out of the hole.

Fish

Anything left in a wellbore. It does not matter whether the fish consists of junk
metal, a hand tool, a length of drillpipe or drill collars, or an expensive MWD
and directional drilling package.

Fishing tool

A general term for special mechanical devices used to aid the recovery of
equipment lost downhole.
Fixed cutter bit

A drilling tool that uses polycrystalline diamond compact (PDC) cutters to

shear rock with a continuous scraping motion.

Flapper valve

A check valve that has a spring-loaded plate (or flapper) that may be pumped
through, generally in the downhole direction, but closes if the fluid attempts to
flow back through the drillstring to the surface.

Float joint

A full-sized length of casing placed at the bottom of the casing string that is
usually left full of cement on the inside to ensure that good cement remains on
the outside of the bottom of the casing.

Flowline

The large-diameter metal pipe that connects the bell nipple under the rotary
table to the possum belly at the mud tanks. The flowline is simply an inclined,
gravity-flow conduit to direct mud coming out the top of the wellbore to the
mud surface-treating equipment.

Formation damage

Alteration of the far-field or virgin characteristics of a producing formation,

usually by exposure to drilling fluids. The water or solid particles in the drilling
fluids, or both, tend to decrease the pore volume and effective permeability of
the producible formation in the near-wellbore region.

FEWD

Also known as logging while drilling or LWD, the measurement of formation

properties during the excavation of the hole, or shortly thereafter, through the
use of tools integrated into the bottomhole assembly. LWD, while sometimes
risky and expensive, has the advantage of measuring properties of a
formation before drilling fluids invade deeply. Further, many wellbores prove
to be difficult or even impossible to measure with conventional wireline tools,
especially highly deviated wells. In these situations, the LWD measurement
ensures that some measurement of the subsurface is captured in the event
that wireline operations are not possible.

Formation pressure

The pressure of fluids within the pores of a reservoir, usually hydrostatic

pressure, or the pressure exerted by a column of water from the formation's
depth to sea level.
Free water

Water that is mobile, available to flow, and not bound to surfaces of grains or
minerals in rock.

Or

In cementing, any water in the slurry that is in excess of what is required to

fully hydrate the Portland cement and other additives. Free water can
physically separate as a cement slurry sets.

GR log

A common and inexpensive measurement of the natural emission of gamma

rays by a formation.

Gauge hole

A wellbore that is essentially the same diameter as the bit that was used to
drill it. It is common to find well-consolidated sandstones and carbonate rocks
that remain gauge after being drilled.

Geosteering

The intentional directional control of a well based on the results of downhole

geological logging measurements rather than three-dimensional targets in
space, usually to keep a directional wellbore within a pay zone. In mature
areas, geosteering may be used to keep a wellbore in a particular section of a
reservoir to minimize gas or water breakthrough and maximize economic
production from the well.

Geronimo line

A steel cable attached to the rig derrick or mast near the work platform for the
derrickman. This cable is anchored at surface level (on a vessel or the Earth)
away from the mast in a loose catenary profile, and fitted with a handle and
hand brake that is stored at the top.

Goose neck

An inverted "U" shaped section of rigid piping normally used as a conduit for
high-pressure drilling fluid. In particular, the term is applied to a structure that
connects the top of a vertical standpipe running up the side of a derrick or
mast to a flexible kelly hose that in turn is connected to another gooseneck
between the flexible line and the swivel.
Gravity toolface

Toolface angle used for deviated wells. Gravity toolface is the angle of the
borehole survey instrument within the wellbore measured clockwise relative to
up and in the plane perpendicular to the wellbore axis; the high side
(maximum build), maximum right, low side (maximum drop) and maximum left
directions have gravity toolface angles of 0, 90, 180 and 270, respectively.

Guide shoe

A tapered, often bullet-nosed piece of equipment often found on the bottom of

a casing string.

Gumbo

A generic term for soft, sticky, swelling clay formations that are frequently
encountered in surface holes offshore or in sedimentary basins onshore near
seas.