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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.
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
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
Back off
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
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
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
Bicenter bit
Bit
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
Bit trip
The process of pulling the drillstring out of the wellbore for the purpose of
changing a worn or underperforming drill bit.
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
Blow out
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.
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
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.
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
Casing
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
Casing grade
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
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
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
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 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
Choke line
Choke manifold
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
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
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).
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
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
Displacement fluid
The fluid, usually drilling mud, used to force a cement slurry out of the casing
string and into the annulus.
Dog leg
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
Drawworks
Drift
Or
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
Drill ship
DST
Dry hole
Dynamic positioning
Elevator
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
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
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
FEWD
Formation pressure
Water that is mobile, available to flow, and not bound to surfaces of grains or
minerals in rock.
Or
GR log
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
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
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.