Oil and Gas Terms Beginning with “P”

Plug and abandonment (P&A) is the regulated process of permanently sealing a wellbore with cement plugs and mechanical barriers to isolate subsurface formations, prevent fluid migration, and safely retire a well from… Read more →

What Is a P-Wave? A P-wave (compressional wave) propagates through rock by compressing and dilating particles in the same direction as wave travel, making it the fastest seismic wave type and the primary reflection… Read more →

Polyanionic cellulose (PAC) is a water-soluble anionic cellulose derivative produced by carboxymethylation of natural cellulose, in which hydroxyl groups on the cellulose backbone are partially substituted with… Read more →

Polyalkylene glycol (PAG) in oil and gas operations refers to a class of synthetic water-soluble polymers formed by the polymerization of alkylene oxides, most commonly ethylene oxide (producing polyethylene glycol,… Read more →

PAO (polyalphaolefin) in drilling fluid engineering is a synthetic hydrocarbon liquid manufactured through the oligomerization (catalytic polymerization to low-molecular-weight oligomers) of linear alpha-olefin monomers… Read more →

What Is PARCOM? PARCOM was the Paris Commission established under the 1974 Paris Convention to regulate land-based pollution sources affecting the North-East Atlantic, operating alongside the separate Oslo Commission… Read more →

What Is a PDC Bit? A PDC bit (polycrystalline diamond compact bit) is a fixed-cutter rotary drilling bit that uses synthetic diamond cutting elements bonded to tungsten carbide substrates to shear rock rather than crush… Read more →

What Is the PEF? The photoelectric factor (PEF) is a wireline log measurement that quantifies the photoelectric absorption of gamma rays by formation electrons, expressed in barns per electron, and serves as a direct… Read more →

What Is PHPA? PHPA, or partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide, is a water-soluble synthetic polymer used as a primary shale inhibitor and rheology modifier in water-based drilling fluids. It is produced by partial… Read more →

What Is PHPA Mud? PHPA mud is a water-based drilling fluid system that uses partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (PHPA) polymer as the primary shale inhibitor, relying on adsorption of the long-chain polymer molecules… Read more →

Abbreviation for productivity index. Read more →

Abbreviation for ProductionLogging Tool. Read more →

PNP in oilfield completion and intervention operations is an abbreviation for "push-neutral-pull," describing the sequence of mechanical motions applied to a shifting tool or selective entry device on a wireline or… Read more →

POD is the common abbreviation for point of departure , the term used to describe the beginning of thickening of a cement slurry during the thickening-time test. For some slurries the POD is used as the thickening time… Read more →

PPA is the universal oilfield abbreviation for Particle Plugging Apparatus, a laboratory filtration test instrument used by drilling fluid engineers and reservoir protection specialists to evaluate drill-in fluid and… Read more →

PPT (pressure pulse telemetry or parts per thousand, depending on context) in petroleum engineering refers primarily to pressure pulse telemetry — the mud pulse telemetry method used by measurement-while-drilling (MWD)… Read more →

A mnemonic for the pseudostatic spontaneous potential. Read more →

PV (plastic viscosity) in drilling fluid engineering is the viscosity parameter of the Bingham plastic rheological model that describes the slope of the linear shear stress versus shear rate relationship above the yield… Read more →

PVT (pressure-volume-temperature) analysis is the laboratory characterization of a reservoir fluid sample's thermodynamic behavior across a range of pressures, temperatures, and compositions — providing the fundamental… Read more →

What Is Personal Protective Equipment? Personal protective equipment (PPE) encompasses the clothing, devices, and equipment worn by workers to protect against physical, chemical, biological, and radiological hazards in… Read more →

Pf is the phenolphthalein alkalinity of drilling mud filtrate, the most widely-run alkalinity test on water-based drilling fluids and one of the four routine mud checks performed by the on-site mud engineer every tour,… Read more →

What Is a Pickett Plot? Pickett plot (also called a Pickett crossplot) is a log-derived graphical technique in which the logarithm of true formation resistivity (Rt) is plotted on the vertical axis against the logarithm… Read more →

A hydraulic or pneumatic wrench used to make up or break out drill pipe, tubing, or casing on which the torque is provided by air or fluid pressure. Read more →

A pitot tube is a flow measurement device that determines fluid velocity, and by extension volumetric flow rate, by comparing the stagnation pressure at the tube's open end (where the flowing fluid is brought to rest)… Read more →

Pm is the phenolphthalein alkalinity of whole drilling mud, measured by adding 2 to 4 drops of phenolphthalein indicator directly to 1 cubic centimetre of whole mud (not filtrate as in the Pf test) and titrating with… Read more →

The Poisson distribution is a discrete probability distribution that describes the number of times a random event occurs within a fixed interval of time, length, area, or volume, given that the events happen… Read more →

What Is Poisson's Ratio? Poisson's ratio (also called the lateral strain ratio or nu, symbolized as v) is a dimensionless elastic constant that describes how much a material deforms laterally when compressed or… Read more →

An air or inert gas device that minimizes pressure surges in the output line of a mud pump. Also called a surge dampener. Read more →

Slang for penetration rate, or the speed that the bit is drilling into the formation. Read more →

Slang for penetration rate, or the speed that the bit is drilling into the formation. Read more →