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

pH is the standard quantitative measure of the acidity or alkalinity of an aqueous solution, defined mathematically as the negative base-10 logarithm of the hydrogen ion concentration: pH = -log10[H+] = log10(1/[H+]),… Read more →

A pH test is a fundamental measurement in oilfield chemistry that quantifies the acidity or alkalinity of a fluid on a logarithmic scale from 0 to 14 — with 7 representing neutral, values below 7 indicating acidic… Read more →

To pack off means to create hydraulic isolation in a wellbore, sealing one portion of the well from another so that fluids and pressure cannot communicate across the seal. The isolation can be achieved mechanically with… Read more →

What Is a Packer? A packer is a downhole sealing device run on tubing or casing that compresses or inflates a rubber element against the wellbore wall to isolate the annular space between the tubing and casing string,… Read more →

A packer flowmeter is a production logging device used to measure in-situ the velocity of fluid flow within a producing or injection well — distinguished from conventional spinner flowmeters by its inflatable packer… Read more →

Packer fluid is the fluid that fills the annular space between the production tubing and the casing above a wellbore packer, serving multiple functions in the completion including hydrostatic pressure management,… Read more →

A packing gland in oil and gas equipment is a mechanical sealing assembly that prevents fluid leakage around a moving shaft, rod, or pipe that passes through a pressure boundary, using compressible packing material… Read more →

A packoff is the sealing component or assembly that effects hydraulic isolation in a well, the physical element that does the work captured by the verb to pack off . As a noun, the term names several distinct pieces of… Read more →

A pad in wireline logging is the part of a logging tool that is pressed firmly against the borehole wall to support pad-contact measurements that require minimal standoff between the sensor and the formation — providing… Read more →

A paddle blender in drilling operations is a mechanical mixing device installed in the mud pits or at the surface mixing system of a drilling rig that uses rotating paddle impellers to provide bulk agitation and… Read more →

An oil and gas lease in which delay rentals for the entire primary term are paid in advance with the bonus consideration. Read more →

Pair production is a gamma ray interaction mechanism in which a high-energy photon is completely absorbed as it passes through the strong electric field near an atomic nucleus and is converted into an electron-positron… Read more →

Paleontology in oil and gas exploration and production refers to the applied science of using fossil evidence (microfossils, macrofossils, and organic-walled microfossils called palynomorphs) to determine the geological… Read more →

Paludal describes a depositional environment, and the sediments or organisms associated with it, that forms in a marsh, swamp, bog, or other freshwater to brackish wetland. The word derives from the Latin palus, meaning… Read more →

Describing material deposited in or growing in a marsh. Read more →

Palynology is the scientific study of organic-walled microfossils — principally pollen grains, spores, dinoflagellate cysts (dinocysts), acritarchs, chitinozoans, scolecodonts, and freshwater algal prasinophytes —… Read more →

Paraffin is a class of saturated hydrocarbon compounds (also called n-alkanes, with general formula CnH2n+2) that frequently precipitates on production system components as wax-like deposits when changing temperature… Read more →

What Is Paraffin Control? Paraffin control (also called wax management or wax remediation) is the suite of chemical, mechanical, and thermal methods used to prevent, remove, or manage the deposition of paraffinic wax on… Read more →

A paraffin inhibitor is a specialty chemical injected into oil wells, production flowlines, and surface facilities to prevent or reduce the deposition of paraffin wax (crystalline n-alkanes, primarily C18 to C36… Read more →

(noun) A mechanical tool run on wireline, slickline, or sucker rods inside the production tubing to remove accumulated paraffin wax deposits from the inner wall, restoring the full bore diameter and maintaining… Read more →

A paraffin scratcher is a downhole tool, generally run on slickline , used to mechanically remove paraffin and soft wax deposits from the internal wall of production tubulars and completion equipment. Paraffin is the… Read more →

Paraffin-base crude oil is a crude that contains a significant proportion of paraffin wax (long-chain normal and iso alkanes) but very little asphaltic material, which makes it well suited to producing high-quality… Read more →

Paraffinic hydrocarbons are organic compounds composed exclusively of carbon and hydrogen atoms linked by single carbon-carbon bonds (saturated aliphatic hydrocarbons), including the normal paraffins (n-alkanes, such as… Read more →

Paraformaldehyde is a solid, white, water-soluble polymer of formaldehyde (with the general formula HO(CH₂O)nH, where n typically ranges from 8 to 100) that is used in drilling fluid engineering as a biocide and… Read more →

A parallel fold is a folded rock geometry in which the thickness of each layer, measured perpendicular to the original undeformed bedding, is preserved after folding, so the bed is exactly as thick around the hinge as… Read more →

Parallel resistivity, denoted Rh and also called horizontal resistivity, is the electrical resistivity of a formation measured when current flows parallel to the bedding planes, that is, within the plane of the layering… Read more →

In oil and gas usage, a parameter is a value that is held constant for the purpose of a calculation or model, even though it could in principle vary. The word shows up in petrophysics, reservoir simulation, decline… Read more →

Parametric refers to a class of seismic inversion algorithms used to separate overlapping wavefields by iteratively building a parameterized model of the data that fits the recorded traces. The technique is most… Read more →

What Is a Parasequence? Parasequence (also called a shallowing-upward cycle or regressive cycle) is a relatively conformable succession of genetically related beds and bedsets bounded above and below by marine flooding… Read more →

A marine flooding surface or its correlative surface. Read more →