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

Pertaining to a material that can deform permanently without rupturing. Read more →

Plastic deformation is the permanent, non-recoverable change in shape or volume of a material that occurs when applied stress exceeds the material's elastic limit but remains below the rupture point. In a geomechanical… Read more →

A plastic fluid is a non-Newtonian fluid that requires a finite minimum shear stress before it begins to flow, and once flowing, exhibits a shear stress to shear rate relationship that is not directly proportional. The… Read more →

Plastic viscosity (PV) in drilling fluid engineering is one of the two primary parameters of the Bingham plastic rheological model that describes the flow behavior of drilling mud — specifically the slope of the shear… Read more →

Plate out (also written as plate-out or plating out) in petroleum engineering refers to the deposition or adsorption of a substance onto a surface from a flowing fluid, with the term used in two distinct technical… Read more →

Plate tectonics is the unifying geological theory that Earth's outer shell (the lithosphere) is divided into a dozen major and several minor rigid plates that move relative to each other over the underlying, partially… Read more →

A topographic feature consisting of a large flat area at a relatively high elevation with steep sides. Read more →

A relatively flat, nearly level area of sedimentary rocks in a continent that overlies or abuts the basement rocks of a craton. Read more →

To pursue hydrocarbon accumulations of a given type. Read more →

In well logging, a playback is a log that has been generated from previously recorded digital data, rather than being printed in real time as the logging tool is run up the wellbore. Modern logging tools record digital… Read more →

What Is Plug and Abandon? Plug and abandon (abbreviated P&A, also called well abandonment or well decommissioning) is the regulatory-mandated process of permanently sealing a wellbore at the end of its productive or… Read more →

Plug flow is a multiphase flow pattern in which liquid flows through a pipe as a series of distinct, coherent plugs or bullets of liquid separated by smaller pockets of gas — distinguishing it from slug flow (where… Read more →

Plugging material in drilling and workover operations is any solid, fibrous, flake, or gel additive engineered to physically block permeable formations and stop drilling fluid, completion fluid, or workover fluid from… Read more →

The angle between a linear feature and a horizontal line in a vertical plane containing both lines. Read more →

What Is Plunger Lift? Plunger lift is a low-cost artificial lift method that uses a free-traveling cylindrical plunger inside the production tubing to create a mechanical interface between the accumulated casing annulus… Read more →

(noun) The additional stroke distance beyond the designed plunger travel in a sucker rod pumping system, occurring when the pump plunger descends past its normal bottom position due to rod stretch or fluid pound.… Read more →

What Is a Point Bar? Point bar (also called a meander bar or lateral accretion deposit) is a fluvial sedimentary body that accumulates on the inner, convex bank of a river meander bend through a process called lateral… Read more →

A term used to describe the beginning of thickening of a cementslurry during the thickening-time test, often abbreviated as POD. For some slurries, the POD is used as the thickening time. Read more →

Polar in petroleum chemistry and reservoir engineering refers to molecules or compounds that have an uneven distribution of electrical charge — with one end of the molecule carrying a partial negative charge and the… Read more →

A polar compound is a molecule in which the electrons forming the chemical bonds are shared unequally, so one region of the molecule carries a partial negative charge and another a partial positive charge. This charge… Read more →

Polarity describes the sign convention that ties the physical property being measured to the way it is displayed or recorded, and in oil and gas the term appears in three distinct settings: the positive and negative… Read more →

A polarity standard in seismic data processing and interpretation is a convention that defines the sign (positive or negative) of the seismic wavelet peak relative to the reflection coefficient at a specific interface —… Read more →

What Is a Polarization Horn? A polarization horn is a characteristic log artefact seen on induction resistivity tools at the boundaries of conductive (low-resistivity) beds adjacent to resistive formations, appearing as… Read more →

Polarization time (PT) in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) measurements is the duration during which the formation hydrogen nuclei are exposed to the static magnetic field of the NMR tool to align their magnetic moments… Read more →

A polished joint is a section of tubing or a dedicated mandrel with a precisely machined and surface-finished outer diameter that slides through the bore seals of a production packer or a tubing seal assembly, creating… Read more →

What Is a Polished Rod? Polished rod (also called the pony rod in some regional dialects) is the topmost section of the sucker-rod string in a beam pump artificial lift system, consisting of a smooth, precisely machined… Read more →

What Is Polyacrylamide? Polyacrylamide (also called PAM, PHPA when partially hydrolyzed, or HPAM in its anionic hydrolyzed form) is a synthetic water-soluble polymer produced by the free-radical polymerization of… 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 →

Polyalphaolefin (PAO) is a synthetic hydrocarbon compound produced by the catalytic oligomerization of alpha-olefin monomers (predominantly 1-decene, C10H20, derived from the controlled cracking and separation of… 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 →