Oil and Gas Terms Beginning with “G” — Page 6

A nonspecific type of shale that becomes sticky when wet and adheres aggressively to surfaces. It forms mud rings and balls that can plug the annulus, the flowline and shale-shaker screens. Gumbo is likely to contain… Read more →

(noun) A perforating device, typically a shaped-charge carrier assembly, that is lowered into a cased wellbore on wireline, tubing, or coiled tubing and detonated to create penetrating holes through the casing, cement… Read more →

A settling tank used for treating oil. Oil and brine are separated only by gravity segregation forces. The clean oil floats to the top and brine is removed from the bottom of the tank. Gun barrels are found… Read more →

The distance between the external surface of the gun assembly and the internal surface of the casing or liner. The gun clearance depends on the position of the gun within the tubular and will vary between phases of… Read more →

The point on a gun assembly or perforating string that is used when correlating depth. With use of a surface depth reference or datum point, any convenient point may be used, providing it is applied accurately and… Read more →

Debris, dirt, paraffin, oil, millscale and rust removed from a pipeline when a scraper or a pig is used for cleaning purposes. Read more →

A slurry that consists of bentonite, cement or polymers mixed into an oil; bentonite in diesel oil is commonly used as a gunk plug. A small batch of the slurry is pumped down a well that has lost circulation to seal the… Read more →

The operation of squeezing a gunk plug into a zone of lost circulation. When spotted next to the zone, the annular blowout preventers are closed and pressure is applied by further pumping to force the gunk into the loss… Read more →

The act of strongly agitating the mud pits, particularly on bottom and in corners, with the mud guns. Gunning the pits lifts settled barite, which can result in sudden, perhaps undesirable, increase in mud density in… Read more →

A calcium-based water mud system containing gypsum. Gyp mud can be used for drilling shales, but it is also well-suited for drilling gypsum, anhydrite and salt stringers. An advantage of gyp over lime muds is that the… Read more →

[CaSO472H2O]A highly insoluble sulfate mineral that is the first to precipitate from evaporating seawater. Dehydration of gypsum can produce anhydrite. Fine-grained gypsum is called alabaster. Read more →