Oil and Gas Terms Beginning with “C” — Page 2

Cable tool drilling (also called percussion drilling, churn drilling, or spudding in historical WCSB petroleum literature) is a well-drilling method in which a heavy steel bit assembly attached to a wire cable is… Read more →

Calcite is the mineral form of calcium carbonate, with the chemical formula CaCO3. It is the main building block of limestone, chalk, marble, and most of the world's carbonate oil and gas reservoirs. Calcite is soft… Read more →

Calcium bromide (CaBr2, also written calcium di-bromide in WCSB completion fluid specifications) is a clear, highly water-soluble inorganic salt that dissolves in fresh or saline water to form a solids-free,… Read more →

Calcium carbonate (CaCO3, mineral form calcite or aragonite, commonly referred to in WCSB drilling and completion programs as carbonate, marble dust, or by commercial product names such as Baracarb or Soluflake) is an… Read more →

Calcium carbonate plug (also referred to as a CaCO3 plug, carbonate diverter plug, or acid-soluble bridge in WCSB completion engineering) is a deliberately placed accumulation of graded calcium carbonate particles… Read more →

Calcium chloride (CaCl2, also written calcium dichloride in WCSB drilling and completion fluid specifications) is a highly water-soluble inorganic salt that in oilfield applications serves multiple functions depending… Read more →

Calcium contamination in WCSB water-base drilling mud (WBM) is the introduction of soluble calcium ions (Ca2+) into the mud system at concentrations above the mud design specification, from sources other than the… Read more →

Calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH)2, commonly called slaked lime, hydrated lime, or portlandite in its crystalline mineral form) is a strong inorganic base produced by the reaction of calcium oxide (CaO, quicklime) with water… Read more →

Calcium mud (also written calcium-base mud or calcium-treated mud in WCSB drilling fluid engineering) is a broad classification of water-base drilling fluid systems in which divalent calcium ions (Ca2+) are the primary… Read more →

Calcium naphthenate (also written calcium naphthenates, CaNaph, or simply naphthenate scale in WCSB production chemistry literature) is an organic-metallic scale compound formed by the reaction of naphthenic acids… Read more →

Calcium oxide (CaO, commonly called quicklime or burnt lime, and referred to as free lime when occurring as an unreacted excess phase in clinker) is an inorganic metallic oxide produced by the thermal decomposition… Read more →

Calcium sulfate (CaSO4 in its anhydrous form as the mineral anhydrite, and CaSO4·2H2O as the mineral gypsum) occurs in WCSB well operations in two distinct contexts: as a naturally occurring formation mineral in the… Read more →

Calcium test (also called the calcium filtrate test, Ca2+ analysis, or calcium hardness titration in WCSB mud engineer and mud logging terminology) is a quantitative chemical analysis performed on the filtered mud… Read more →

Calibration is the documented process of comparing the output of a measurement instrument against a known reference standard of the same quantity under controlled conditions, establishing the relationship between the… Read more →

Caliche (also called calcrete, hardpan, duricrust, or calcium carbonate hardpan in WCSB land reclamation and geotechnical engineering literature) is a near-surface sedimentary rock layer consisting of soil particles… Read more →

A caliper log is a wireline logging measurement that records the physical diameter or cross-sectional shape of a wellbore as a function of depth by pressing spring-loaded mechanical arms against the borehole wall as the… Read more →

Camera (downhole) (also called borehole camera, wellbore video tool, downhole CCTV, or wireline camera in WCSB well intervention and workover literature) is an instrumented inspection device incorporating one or more… Read more →

Cap (also called blasting cap, seismic cap, electric detonator, or shot cap in WCSB land seismic acquisition and explosive engineering terminology) is a small, precisely timed initiating device that detonates a larger… Read more →

Cap rock (also called seal rock, top seal, or simply the seal in WCSB reservoir geology and petroleum engineering literature) is a formation of very low permeability and high capillary entry pressure that directly… Read more →

Cap the well (also referred to as capping a well, blowout capping, or well shut-in in WCSB well control and emergency response terminology) is the procedure of installing a pressure-containing closure device on a… Read more →

Capacitance log (also called the capacitance tool, dielectric log for production, or water holdup log in WCSB production logging and well performance engineering) is a production logging tool that measures the… Read more →

A capacitance meter is an electronic instrument that measures the electrical capacitance of a fluid or material, using the principle that different substances have distinct dielectric constants that alter the… Read more →

The capillary number is a dimensionless ratio that expresses the competition between viscous forces and capillary forces acting at fluid interfaces within a porous medium, defined as Nc equals viscosity times velocity… Read more →

A capillary pressure curve is a laboratory-measured relationship expressing the pressure difference across an oil-water or gas-water interface inside a pore throat as a function of wetting-phase saturation in a… Read more →

The capillary suction time test is a rapid laboratory procedure that measures the filterability of drill cuttings slurries and drilling fluid suspensions by recording the time required for the liquid phase of a sample… Read more →

A capillary tube viscometer is a viscosity measurement instrument that determines the dynamic or kinematic viscosity of a fluid by measuring the volumetric flow rate through a precision-bored tube of known internal… Read more →

The capillary suction time test, when applied to produced water streams, oily water separator effluent, reserve pit slop, and emulsion treater underflow in Western Canada Sedimentary Basin production facilities, serves… Read more →

Caprock effect (also called the cap-rock gravity anomaly or dense caprock positive anomaly in WCSB exploration geophysics and potential field interpretation) is a positive Bouguer gravity anomaly generated by the… Read more →

Capsule gun (also called an exposed perforating gun, through-tubing capsule perforator, or expendable capsule gun system in WCSB completion and intervention engineering) is a wireline-conveyed perforating gun system in… Read more →

Carbide lag test (also called the calcium carbide test, carbide kick, or acetylene lag test in WCSB mudlogging and formation evaluation terminology) is a wellsite technique used by mudloggers and wellsite geologists to… Read more →