Oil and Gas Terms Beginning with “S” — Page 10

Water that does not contain divalent cations, such as Ca+2, Mg+2 or Fe+2 and is therefore suitable for prehydrating bentonite or polymers. Read more →

Oilfield slang term for rope not made of steel, such as nylon, cotton, or especially standard manila hemp rope. Read more →

(noun) A granular or bead-form hygroscopic material, such as silica gel, activated alumina, or molecular sieves, used in gas processing to adsorb water vapour from a natural gas stream in a dehydration unit, reducing… Read more →

Solubility, in petroleum engineering and geoscience, refers to the maximum quantity of a substance (solute) that can dissolve in a given volume of a solvent at specified temperature and pressure conditions, and it… Read more →

What Is Solution Gas in Oil and Gas? Solution gas (also called dissolved gas) is natural gas that is dissolved in crude oil under the elevated pressure and temperature conditions of the subsurface reservoir. Like carbon… Read more →

Solution gas drive (also called dissolved gas drive or depletion drive) is the primary recovery mechanism in oil reservoirs where the energy for producing oil to the surface is provided by the expansion of dissolved gas… Read more →

Solution gas drive (also called dissolved gas drive or depletion drive) is the primary recovery mechanism in oil reservoirs where the energy for producing oil to the surface is provided by the expansion of dissolved gas… Read more →

The section of a logging tool that contains the measurement sensors, as distinct from the cartridge, which contains the electronics and power supplies. Read more →

Sonde error is the difference between a logging tool's measured output when placed in a precisely characterized reference environment (air hang, de-ionized water tank, API calibration pit, or calibration jig with known… Read more →

Some authors use the term to describe P-waves in fluids, or as a synonym for seismic or elastic. Read more →

A sonic log (also called an acoustic log, compressional wave log, or interval transit time log) is a petrophysical well log that measures the time required for a compressional (P-wave) sound pulse to travel through one… Read more →

A sonic measurement is the technique for recording a borehole sonic log, encompassing the measurement of any of the acoustic properties of formations and fluids in and around the borehole — providing essential… Read more →

A sonolog is a downhole acoustic measurement instrument used in petroleum well production engineering to determine the fluid level (the depth to the liquid surface) in the annular space between the production tubing and… Read more →

Sorting in sedimentology and reservoir engineering refers to the degree of uniformity in grain size within a sedimentary rock — a well-sorted sediment has grains of nearly uniform diameter (narrow size distribution),… Read more →

Sour refers to crude oil or natural gas that contains hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) at concentrations above a threshold that requires special handling. For natural gas in Canada, the threshold is 5.7 milligrams of H₂S per… Read more →

The corrosion caused by contact with hydrogen sulfide [H2S] dissolved in water.Sour corrosion takes the form of sulfidestresscracking or hydrogen embrittlement. Read more →

A crude oil containing hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide or mercaptans. Read more →

What Is Sour Gas? Sour gas is natural gas or associated gas containing hydrogen sulphide (H2S) above a concentration threshold that requires specialised materials, safety systems, and processing before the gas can be… Read more →

A device that provides energy for acquisition of seismic data, such as an air gun, explosive charge or vibrator. Read more →

What Is a Source Rock in Oil and Gas? A source rock is a sedimentary rock unit that contains sufficient organic matter to generate and expel hydrocarbons — oil, gas, or both — when subjected to heat and burial over… Read more →

Space out, in oilfield operations, refers to the precise positioning of the drill string, tubing string, or completion string at a specific depth so that a downhole tool (packer, safety valve, liner hanger, or… Read more →

The space-frequency domain (also called the f-x domain, where f denotes temporal frequency and x denotes spatial position along a seismic line) is a mathematical representation of seismic data in which the time axis of… Read more →

A spacer in well cementing is a viscous fluid pumped ahead of the cement slurry during a primary cementing operation to separate and physically displace the drilling fluid (mud) from the annular space between the casing… Read more →

What Is a Spacer Fluid? A spacer fluid is any liquid injected between two chemically incompatible special-purpose fluids — most commonly between drilling mud and cement slurry during primary cementing — to physically… Read more →

The distance between successive shotpoints. Read more →

An area allotted to a well by regulations or field rules issued by a governmental authority having jurisdiction for the drilling and production of a well. Read more →

The dimensionless ratio of the weight of a material to that of the same volume of water. Most common minerals have specific gravities between 2 and 7. Read more →

Specific permeability in petroleum engineering is the absolute permeability of a porous rock measured when a single fluid phase completely saturates the pore space — also called absolute permeability, intrinsic… Read more →

Pertaining to a spectrum. The spectral content of a wavetrain or wavelet usually refers to its amplitude and phase as a function of frequency. Read more →

A technique for utilizing fractal geometry to produce reservoir descriptions. Read more →