Oil and Gas Terms Beginning with “B” — Page 9

A chemical used to reduce the viscosity of specialized treatment fluids such as gels and foams. Breaking down the fluid viscosity may be desirable either as part of a treatment, such as allowing flow back of the spent… Read more →

To unscrew drillstring components, which are coupled by various threadforms known as connections, including tool joints and other threaded connections. Read more →

What Is a Breakout Cathead? Breakout cathead (also called the break-out cathead or back-off cathead ) is a rotating cylindrical drum or spool mounted on the end of the drawworks shaft, used to provide mechanical… Read more →

What Are Breakout Tongs? Breakout tongs (also called pipe tongs or break-out tongs ) are the large, adjustable pipe wrenches used on the rig floor to apply the reverse torque needed to unscrew drill pipe, drill collar,… Read more →

What Is Breakthrough? Breakthrough in oil and gas production refers to the arrival of injected fluid (water, gas, or EOR agent) at a producing well after having been injected at a separate injection well — the moment… Read more →

A wellbore obstruction caused by a buildup of material such as scale, wellbore fill or cuttings that can restrict wellbore access or, in severe cases, eventually close the wellbore. Read more →

What Is a Bridge-Off? Bridge-off (also called bridging or a wellbore bridge ) is the formation of a packed plug of cuttings, formation debris, or collapsed wellbore material across the annulus or open borehole that… Read more →

What Is a Bridge Plug? A bridge plug is a downhole tool run on wireline, coiled tubing, or drillpipe into a cased wellbore to create a temporary or permanent mechanical barrier at a specific depth — isolating the… Read more →

The accumulation or buildup of material, such as sand, fill or scale, within a wellbore, to the extent that the flow of fluids or passage of tools or downhole equipment is severely obstructed. In extreme cases, the… Read more →

What Is Bridging Material? Bridging material (also called lost circulation material or LCM ) is a granular, fibrous, or flake-shaped solid additive blended into drilling fluid to physically plug lost circulation zones.… Read more →

A special section of cable that is placed between the logging cable and the head of the logging tool. Unlike the logging cable, the steel load-bearing element is in the center, surrounded by the conductors that are held… Read more →

What Is a Bright Spot? A bright spot is a seismic amplitude anomaly — a zone of anomalously high reflection amplitude on a seismic section or 3D seismic volume — caused by the large acoustic impedance contrast between… Read more →

Water containing salts in solution, such as sodium, calcium or bromides. Brine is commonly produced along with oil. The disposal of oilfield brine is usually accomplished by underground injection into salt-water… Read more →

What Does "Bring In the Well" Mean? Bringing in the well (also called well start-up or placing the well on production ) is the sequence of completion and production initiation operations that transforms a drilled,… Read more →

A downhole tool used to repair the internal diameter of the production tubing where a slight collapse or a dent has occurred. Cutting profiles on a broach removes the tubing-wall material to allow subsequent passage of… Read more →

A particular arrangement of transmitters and receivers used in the electromagnetic propagation measurement in which the dipoles used as sensors are oriented perpendicular to the axis of the tool. The orientation is… Read more →

What Is a Bromide Brine? Bromide brine (also called clear brine fluid or bromide completion fluid ) is a high-density, solids-free aqueous fluid prepared by dissolving one or more bromine-bearing salts — sodium bromide… Read more →

What Is Bromocresol Green? Bromocresol green (also called BCG or 3,3',5,5'-tetrabromo-m-cresolsulfonphthalein ) is a synthetic triphenylmethane pH indicator dye used in drilling fluid analysis to provide a precise… Read more →

What Is a Brownfield? A brownfield in oil and gas refers to an existing, mature producing asset — an oilfield, gas field, or producing facility that has been in production for years or decades, as distinct from a… Read more →

What Is a Brute Stack? Brute stack (also called preliminary stack or quick-look stack ) is an early-stage seismic data processing product created by sorting field seismic records into common midpoint (CMP) gathers,… Read more →

What Is a Bubble Count? Bubble count (also called gas units or total gas reading ) is a mud logging measurement that quantifies the concentration of dissolved or free gas liberated from returning drilling fluid as it… Read more →

Bubble pulses or bubble noise that affect data quality. In marine seismic acquisition, the gas bubble produced by an air gun oscillates and generates subsequent pulses that cause source-generated noise. Careful use of… Read more →

What Is Bubble Flow? Bubble flow (also called bubbly flow ) is a multiphase flow regime in which a continuous liquid phase — oil, water, or an oil-water mixture — contains dispersed small gas bubbles distributed… Read more →

What Is Bubble Point in Oil and Gas? The bubble point (also called the bubble-point pressure or saturation pressure) is the pressure at which the first bubble of gas evolves from a liquid hydrocarbon mixture at a given… Read more →

What Is Bubble Point? The bubble point (also written as bubblepoint) is the pressure at a given temperature at which the first bubble of gas appears in a liquid-phase reservoir fluid as pressure is reduced — the upper… Read more →

What Is a Bucking Coil? Bucking coil (also called a balance coil or compensation coil ) is a secondary receiver coil wound in opposition to the primary receiver coil in an induction resistivity logging tool. Positioned… Read more →

On a laterolog device, the current sent through a guard electrode (A1) with the purpose of focusing the current sent by the central current emitting electrode (A0). The bucking current maintains A1 and A0 at the same… Read more →

A chemical used to adjust and control the pH of stimulation fluids. Gels and complex polymer fluids are sensitive to pH changes, especially during the mixing phase when the dispersion and hydration of some polymers… Read more →

Any aqueous solution that contains a buffer mixture (weak acid or weak base and salt of the weak acid or base) to maintain constant or almost constant pH of the system. Read more →

What Is a Buffered Mud? Buffered mud (also called a buffered water-based mud or pH-buffered drilling fluid) is a water-based drilling fluid formulated with a chemical buffering system — most commonly a lime/bicarbonate… Read more →