Oil and Gas Terms Beginning with “Q”

The dimensionless quality factor. It is the ratio of the peak energy of a wave to the dissipated energy. As waves travel, they lose energy with distance and time due to spherical divergence and absorption. Such energy loss must be accounted for when restoring seismic amplitudes to perform fluid and lithologic interpretations, such as amplitude versus offset (AVO) analysis. Q is also described as the reciprocal of attenuation, but that is not strictly correct because the attenuation coefficient has units of inverse length.

Planned and systematic monitoring, testing and documenting of practices to show that a product or procedure meets established standards. Companies that manufacture, process, sell, handle, ship or buy drilling fluid materials typically establish QA programs. Some oil company labs perform QA testing. API and ISO jointly issue specifications for mud materials. A mud supplier must meet specifications and adhere to quality testing practices in order to place an API monogram (logo) on a product. Suppliers are required to pay for use of the API monogram program. Quality specifications that the API has adopted through joint user and supplier efforts are not always suitable for all users of the materials.

A log of formation density from one of the quadrants of an azimuthal density tool.

Planned and systematic monitoring, testing and documenting of practices to show that a product or procedure meets established standards. Companies that manufacture, process, sell, handle, ship or buy drilling fluid materials typically establish QA programs. Some oil company labs perform QA testing. API and ISO jointly issue specifications for mud materials. A mud supplier must meet specifications and adhere to quality testing practices in order to place an API monogram (logo) on a product. Suppliers are required to pay for use of the API monogram program. Quality specifications that the API has adopted through joint user and supplier efforts are not always suitable for all users of the materials.

A map based on quantile values from the probabilities of the values of the data. This map is used to reveal problems with distributions of variables in geostatistical studies.

Special quantiles at 0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%.

[SiO2]An abundant rock-forming mineral composed of silicon and oxygen, also called silica. Quartz sand grains are a major constituent of sandstone and other clastic sedimentary rocks.

Slang term for quaternary amine.

A cationic amine salt in which the nitrogen atom has four groups bonded to it and carries a positive charge. Quaternary amines are used as oil-wetting agents, corrosion and shale inhibitors and bactericides.

A powdered form of tannic acid extract from the bark of the quebracho tree, used as a high-pH and lime mud deflocculant. It was in widespread use until the 1950s, at which time lignosulfonate became widely available and performed the same function better and cheaper than quebracho. High pH was needed to neutralize tannic acids to form the tannates, which are red. The oilfield name red mud was applied to tannate-dispersed muds.A legend of the oil patch holds that, back in the days when quebracho mud was all the rage (in the days when Hobby Airport was Houston's main airport), a mud man parked his old field car in the airport parking lot for several days. It was raining when he left, but sunny when he got back. The police were waiting to talk to him when he returned because someone noticed a dried blood-red stain under his car. The liquid had obviously leaked out of the trunk. When the mud man opened the trunk for the police, they found two wet sacks of quebracho. As you may have guessed, his trunk lid leaked.

A log, or a display of several logs, that has been generated by a simple computation of log data. The quicklook is intended to make it easy to identify particular features in a section of log. The term is used for single curves designed, for example, to identify hydrocarbon zones, estimate porosity or identify lithology. Examples are Rwa, crossplot porosity, ratio method and apparent matrix density. The term is also used for a complete log containing some combination of quicklook curves, original logs and lithology display. In all cases the computations are based on simple models.

A legal instrument of conveyance that is usually used in title curative work to allow an owner or claimant to quit or give up their claim to a title.