Oilfield terminology refers to the jargon

Jargon

Jargon is terminology which is especially defined in relationship to a specific activity, profession, group, or event. The philosophe Condillac observed in 1782 that "Every science requires a special language because every science has its own ideas." As a rationalist member of the Enlightenment he...

 used by those working in fields within and related to the petroleum industry

Petroleum industry

The petroleum industry includes the global processes of exploration, extraction, refining, transporting , and marketing petroleum products. The largest volume products of the industry are fuel oil and gasoline...

. It includes words and phrases describing professions, equipment, and procedures specific to the industry. It may also include slang

Slang

Slang is the use of informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker's language or dialect but are considered more acceptable when used socially. Slang is often to be found in areas of the lexicon that refer to things considered taboo...

 terms used by oilfield workers to describe the same.

Examples

• Bell nipple: An enlarged pipe at the top of a casing
  Casing
  Casing may refer to:* Cartridge , shell enclosing the explosive propellant in ammunition* Casing , metal tube used during the drilling of a well* Casing , decorative molding surrounding door or window openings...
  
   string that serves as a funnel to guide drilling tools into the top of the well
  Oil well
  An oil well is a general term for any boring through the earth's surface that is designed to find and acquire petroleum oil hydrocarbons. Usually some natural gas is produced along with the oil. A well that is designed to produce mainly or only gas may be termed a gas well.-History:The earliest...
  
  .

• Blowout
  Blowout (well drilling)
  A blowout is the uncontrolled release of crude oil and/or natural gas from an oil well or gas well after pressure control systems have failed....
  
  : A sudden, uncontrolled release of underground pressure from the well.

• CSG (Coal Seam Gas) or CBM (Coal Bed Methane) is methane that forms in the gaps between coal molecules. (not to be confused with csg, an abbreviation for the well casing)

• Hanger: Refers to several different tools. The casing hanger
  Casing hanger
  The casing hanger is that portion of a wellhead assembly which provides support for the casing string when it is lowered into the wellbore. It serves to ensure that the casing is properly located. When the casing string has been run into the wellbore it is hung off, or suspended, by a casing...
  
   is the portion of a wellhead assembly which provides support for the casing string when it is lowered into the wellbore. The liner hanger is used to hang casing liners (casing strings that do not reach the surface) from the internal wall of a previous casing string. The instrument hanger is a downhole tool on which downhole gauges or instruments that are to be temporarily left in the wellbore are attached. The tubing hanger
  Tubing hanger
  A tubing hanger is a component used in the completion of oil and gas production wells. It is set in the tree or the wellhead and suspends the production tubing and/or casing. Sometimes it provides porting to allow the communication of hydraulic, electric and other downhole functions, as well as...
  
   attaches to the topmost tubing joint in the wellhead to support the tubing string.

• Chainhand (also Motorman): An experienced laborer capable of maintaining most parts of the rig. The chainhand is in charge of throwing the chain to make up or break down pipe stands during tripping pipe. They are also responsible for maintaining the motors on the drilling rig (hence "motorman").

• Cold vent: An area of the ocean floor where hydrogen sulfide, methane and other hydrocarbon-rich fluid seepage occurs, often in the form of a brine pool
  Brine pool
  Brine pools are large areas of brine on the ocean basin. These pools are bodies of water that have a salinity three to five times greater than the surrounding ocean. For deep-sea brine pools, the source of the salt is the dissolution of large salt deposits through salt tectonics...
  
  . Constitutes a biome
  Biome
  Biomes are climatically and geographically defined as similar climatic conditions on the Earth, such as communities of plants, animals, and soil organisms, and are often referred to as ecosystems. Some parts of the earth have more or less the same kind of abiotic and biotic factors spread over a...
  
   supporting several endemic species. More commonly a "cold seep".

• Core sample
  Core sample
  A core sample is a cylindrical section of a naturally occurring substance. Most core samples are obtained by drilling with special drills into the substance, for example sediment or rock, with a hollow steel tube called a core drill. The hole made for the core sample is called the "core hole". A...
  
  : A cylindrical section of a naturally occurring medium consistent enough to hold a layered structure. Most cores are obtained by drilling into the medium, for example sediment or rock, with a hollow steel tube called a corer.

• Derrickman: The second in command after the driller.

• Drill string
  Drill string
  A drill string on a drilling rig is a column, or string, of drill pipe that transmits drilling fluid and torque to the drill bit. The term is loosely applied as the assembled collection of the drill pipe, drill collars, tools and drill bit...
  
  : A column, or string, of pipe that transmits drilling fluid
  Drilling fluid
  In geotechnical engineering, drilling fluid is a fluid used to aid the drilling of boreholes into the earth. Often used while drilling oil and natural gas wells and on exploration drilling rigs, drilling fluids are also used for much simpler boreholes, such as water wells. Liquid drilling fluid...
  
   (via the mud pumps) and torque (via the kelly drive
  Kelly drive
  A kelly drive refers to a type of well drilling device on an oil drilling rig that employs a section of pipe with a polygonal or splined outer surface, which passes through the matching polygonal or splined kelly bushing and rotary table...
  
   or top drive
  Top drive
  A top drive is a mechanical device on a drilling rig that provides clockwise rotational force to the drill string to facilitate the process of drilling a borehole. It is an alternative to rotary table...
  
  ) to the drill bit
  Drill bit
  Drill bits are cutting tools used to create cylindrical holes. Bits are held in a tool called a drill, which rotates them and provides torque and axial force to create the hole. Specialized bits are also available for non-cylindrical-shaped holes....
  
  .

• Driller: The crew supervisor on a drilling rig
  Oil rig
  Oil rig may refer to* Drilling rig, an apparatus for on-land oil drilling* Oil platform, an apparatus for offshore oil drillingOIL RIG or OILRIG may refer to :...
  
  , working under the drilling superintendent or the corporation the rig is contracted to.

• Elevator: A hinged mechanism that is closed around the drill pipe or other drill string components to facilitate lowering them into or lifting them out of the wellbore.

• Floorhand: Laborer responsible for the overall maintenance of the rig.

• Frac job: Slang term for hydraulic fracturing, a process whereby an oil or gas well is stimulated by pumping special fluids into the reservoir, fracturing the formation.

• Fish: Any object that has been unintentionally dropped and lost down the wellbore. Fishing is the act of using specialized tools lowered on the drillstring to retrieve a fish.

• Ginzel: Slang term for a worker even lower on the food chain than a worm. A ginzel would be someone just starting out that has no oilfield experience whatsoever.

• Horner plot is a semi-log plot produced during pressure buildup analysis.

• Intelligent well: An oil or gas well equipped with monitoring equipment and completion
  Completion (oil and gas wells)
  In petroleum production, completion is the process of making a well ready for production . This principally involves preparing the bottom of the hole to the required specifications, running in the production tubing and its associated down hole tools as well as perforating and stimulating as...
  
   components that allow for automatic or remote optimization of production.

• Joint: A length of drill pipe.

• Kick: An intrusion of pressurized gas into the wellbore that causes drilling fluid to be displaced. It can be the precursor to a blowout.

• Kill: The act of stopping a well from flowing.

• Well logging: The practice of making a detailed record (a well log) of the geologic formations penetrated by a borehole. Also known as borehole logging. Wireline logging is the practice of measuring formation properties using electrically powered instruments to infer properties and make decisions about drilling and production operations.

• Moon pool
  Moon pool
  A moon pool is a feature of marine drilling platforms, drillships and diving support vessels, some marine research and underwater exploration or research vessels, and underwater habitats, in which it is also known as a wet porch...
  
  , an air-filled chamber open to the water below.

• Mud: Slang term for drilling fluid
  Drilling fluid
  In geotechnical engineering, drilling fluid is a fluid used to aid the drilling of boreholes into the earth. Often used while drilling oil and natural gas wells and on exploration drilling rigs, drilling fluids are also used for much simpler boreholes, such as water wells. Liquid drilling fluid...
  
  . A Mud Man is the drilling fluids technician responsible for formulating the mud, while a Mud Logger checks mud cuttings from the drill bit for traces of rock or oil and gas that provide a picture of conditions downhole.

• Pay: A reservoir or portion of a reservoir containing hydrocarbons that can be economically produced, i.e. it is capable of "paying" an income. Also referred to as "pay sand" or the "pay zone".

• Pig
  Pigging
  Pigging in the context of pipelines refers to the practice of using pipeline inspection gauges or 'pigs' to perform various maintenance operations on a pipeline. This is done without stopping the flow of the product in the pipeline....
  
  : A device inserted into a pipeline for cleaning purposes. The act of using a pig is called pigging.

• Piston corers: advanced piston corer, extended core barrel systems

• Petroleum play
  Petroleum play
  In geology, a petroleum play, or simply a play, is a group of petroleum fields or prospects in the same region that are controlled by the same set of geological circumstances.The normal steps in the play cycle are:...
  
  : (or "play") A group of oil prospects that are controlled by the same set of geological circumstances.

• Pressure Core Sampler: A tool designed to retrieve a sediment
  Sediment
  Sediment is naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of fluids such as wind, water, or ice, and/or by the force of gravity acting on the particle itself....
  
   core sample
  Core sample
  A core sample is a cylindrical section of a naturally occurring substance. Most core samples are obtained by drilling with special drills into the substance, for example sediment or rock, with a hollow steel tube called a core drill. The hole made for the core sample is called the "core hole". A...
  
   from depth under pressure.

• Subsalt: Refers to oil prospects that lie below a salt layer
  Salt tectonics
  500px|thumb|rightSalt tectonics is concerned with the geometries and processes associated with the presence of significant thicknesses of evaporites containing rock salt within a stratigraphic sequence of rocks...
  
  .

• Worm: an inexperienced oilfield worker that is not yet a "hand".

External links

• Energy Industry Oilfield Terms and Oilfield Slang
• Schlumberger Oilfield Glossary
• BG Jargon Buster for the Natural gas industry
• http://oilgasglossary.com/