- Industry: Oil & gas
- Number of terms: 8814
- Number of blossaries: 0
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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. The depth of the cellar is such that the master valve of the Christmas tree are easy to reach from ground level. On smaller rigs, the cellar also serves as the place where the lower part of the BOP stack resides, which reduces the rig height necessary to clear the BOP stack on the top. Prior to setting surface casing, the cellar also takes mud returns from the well, which are pumped back to the surface mud equipment.
Industry:Oil & gas
A drilling-mud additive used to control fluid loss in water muds ranging from freshwater to saturated-salt to high-pH lime muds. Starches have thermal stability to about 250掳F (121掳C). They are subject to bacterial attack unless protected by high salinity or bactericide. Drilling-grade natural starch has API/ISO specifications for quality. Starches are carbohydrates of a general formula (C<sub>6</sub>H<sub>10</sub>O<sub>5</sub>)n and are derived from corn, wheat, oats, rice, potatoes, yucca and similar plants and vegetables. They consist of about 27% linear polymer (amylose) and about 73% branched polymer (amylopectin). The two polymers are intertwined within starch granules. Granules are insoluble in cold water, but soaking in hot water or under steam pressure ruptures their covering and the polymers hydrate into a colloidal suspension. This product is a pregelatinized starch and has been used in muds for many years. Amylose and amylopectin are nonionic polymers that do not interact with electrolytes. Derivatized starches, such as hydroxypropyl and carboxymethyl starches, are used in drill-in fluids, completion fluids and various brine systems as well as in drilling-mud systems. The use of starch typically causes a minimal increase in viscosity while effectively controlling fluid loss.
Industry:Oil & gas
A drilling-fluid test to measure pH of muds and mud filtrates, usually performed according to API specifications. The pH test uses a pH meter equipped with a glass-membrane measuring electrode and reference electrode, which read from 0 to 14. The preferred pH meter automatically compensates for temperature. Buffer solutions of pH = 4, 7 and 10 are specified for calibration of the meter. Color-matching pH paper and sticks are not recommended except for simple muds.
Industry:Oil & gas
A drilling-fluid additive used primarily for fluid-loss control, manufactured by reacting natural cellulose with monochloroacetic acid and sodium hydroxide (NaOH) to form CMC sodium salt. Up to 20 wt % of CMC may be NaCl, a by-product of manufacture, but purified grades of CMC contain only small amounts of NaCl. To make CMC, OH groups on the glucose rings of cellulose are ether-linked to carboxymethyl (-OCH<sub>2</sub>-COO<sup>-</sup>) groups. (Note the negative charge. ) Each glucose ring has three OH groups capable of reaction, degree-of-substitution = 3. Degree of substitution determines water solubility and negativity of the polymer, which influences a CMC's effectiveness as a mud additive. Drilling grade CMCs used in muds typically have degree-of-substitution around 0. 80 to 0. 96. Carboxymethylcellulose is commonly supplied either as low-viscosity ("CMC-Lo Vis") or high-viscosity ("CMC-Hi Vis") grades, both of which have API specifications. The viscosity depends largely on the molecular weight of the starting cellulose material. <br>Reference:<br><br>Hughes TL, Jones TG and Houwen OW: "The Chemical Characterization of CMC and Its Relationship to Drilling-Mud Rheology and Fluid Loss," SPE Drilling & Completion 8, no. 3 (September 1993): 157-164.
Industry:Oil & gas
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.
Industry:Oil & gas
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. The advantages of air drilling are that it is usually much faster than drilling with liquids and it may eliminate lost circulation problems. The disadvantages are the inability to control the influx of formation fluid into the wellbore and the destabilization of the borehole wall in the absence of the wellbore pressure typically provided by liquids.
Industry:Oil & gas
A drilling mud filled open steel or earthen berm tank that is not stirred or circulated. By having mud slowly pass through such a container, most large drilling solids sink to the bottom, cleaning the mud somewhat. If the settling pit is small, as in the case of steel mud tanks, it must be cleaned out frequently as cuttings pile up on the bottom of the tank. In the early days of rotary drilling, some rigs had no more solids control than a large settling pit into which mud was discharged after coming back from the wellbore and suction for the mud pumps was taken at the other end of the pit. A major drawback to this type of "cleaning" is that solids intentionally put into the mud, such as barite, may settle to the bottom and be discarded rather than circulated back into the wellbore.
Industry:Oil & gas
A drilling fluid (mud) in which water or saltwater is the major liquid phase as well as the wetting (external) phase. General categories of water-base muds are fresh water, seawater, salt water, lime, potassium and silicate. Subcategorizes of these abound.
Industry:Oil & gas
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. This imbalance force pushes the bit against the side of the borehole, which in turn creates a stable rotating condition that resists backwards whirling, wobbling and downhole vibration. Antiwhirl bits allow faster rates of penetration, yet achieve longer bit life than more conventional bits, which are not dynamically biased to run smoothly, are inherently unstable, are vibration-prone and thus have shorter lives. No bit is whirl-proof, however.
Industry:Oil & gas
A dispersion of one immiscible liquid into another through the use of a chemical that reduces the interfacial tension between the two liquids to achieve stability. Two emulsion types are used as muds: (1) oil-in-water (or direct) emulsion, known as an "emulsion mud" and (2) water-in-oil (or invert) emulsion, known as an "invert emulsion mud. " The former is classified as a water-base mud and the latter as an oil-base mud.
Industry:Oil & gas
