Process Engineering Term - H & I

Process Engineering Term - H

HANG RODS - to suspend sucker rods in a derrick or mast on rod hangers rather than to place them horizontally on a rack.

HARD HAT - a hard helmet worn by oilfield workers to minimize the danger of being injured by falling objects.

HEADACHE - (slang) the position in which the mast on a mobile rig is resting horizontally over the driver’s cab.

HOIST - 1. an arrangement of pulleys and wire rope used for lifting heavy objects; a winch or similar device. 2. the drawworks. v: to raise or lift.

HOISTING COMPONENTS - drawworks, drilling line, and traveling and crown blocks. Auxiliary hoisting components include catheads, catshaft, and air hoist.

HOISTING DRUM - the large, flanged spool in the drawworks on which the hoisting cable is wound. See drawworks.

HOISTING LINE - a wire rope used in hoisting operations.

HOOK - a large, hook-shaped device from which the elevator bails or the swivel is suspended. It turns on bearings in its supporting housing.

HOISTING SYSTEM - the system on the rig that performs all the lifting on the rig, primarily the lifting and lowering of drill pipe out of and into the hole. It is composed of drilling line, traveling block, crown block, and drawworks. See also hoisting components.

HOOK LOAD - the weight of the drill stem and associated components that are suspended from the hook.

HOPPER - a large funnel- or cone-shaped device into which dry components (such as powdered clay or cement) can be poured to later mix with water or other liquids. The dry component is educted through a nozzle at the bottom of the hopper.

HORSEHEAD - the generally horsehead-shaped steel piece at the front of the beam of a pumping unit to which the bridle is attached in sucker rod pumping.

HORSEPOWER - a unit of measure of work done by a machine.

HORIZONTAL DRILLING - deviation of the borehole from vertical so that the borehole penetrates a productive formation in a manner parallel to the formation.

HYDRAULLIC - 1. of or relating to water or other liquid in motion. 2. operated, moved, or effected by water or liquid.

HYDRAULIC FLUID - a liquid of low viscosity (such as light oil) that is used in systems actuated by liquid (such as the brake system in a car).

HYDRAULIC FORCE - force resulting from pressure on water or other hydraulic fluid.

HYDRAULIC FRACTURING - an operation in which a specially blended liquid is pumped down a well and into a formation under pressure high enough to cause the formation to crack open, forming passages through which oil can flow into the wellbore.

HYDRAULIC JAR - a type of mechanical jar in which a fluid moving through a small opening slows the piston stroke while the crew stretches the work string. After the hydraulic delay, a release mechanism in the jar trips to allow a mandrel to spring up and deliver a sharp blow. Compare mechanical jar.

HYDRAULIC PUMP - a method of pumping oil from wells by using a downhole pump without sucker rods. Subsurface hydraulic pumps consist of two reciprocating pumps coupled and placed in the well. One pump functions as an engine and drives the other pump (the production pump). The downhole engine is usually operated by clean crude oil under under pressure (power oil) that is drawn from a power-oil settling tank by a triplex plunger pump on the surface. If a single string of tubing is used, power oil is pumped down the tubing string to the pump, which is seated in the string, and a mixture of power oil and produced fluid is returned through the casing-tubing annulus. If two parallel strings are used, one supplies power oil to the pump while the other returns the exhaust and produced oil to the surface. A hydraulic pump may be used to pump several wells from a central source.

HYDROCARBONS - organic compounds of hydrogen and carbon whose densities, boiling points, and freezing points increase as their molecular weights increase. Although composed of only two elements, hydrocarbons exist in a variety of compounds, because of the strong affinity of the carbon atom for other atoms and for itself. The smallest molecules of hydrocarbons are gaseous; the largest are solids. Petroleum is a mixture of many different hydrocarbons.

HYDROGEN SULFIDE CRACKING - a type of corrosion that occurs when metals are exposed to hydrogen sulfide gas; it is characterized by minute cracks that form just under the metal’s surface.

HYDROSTATIC PRESSURE - the force exerted by a body of fluid at rest. It increases directly with the density and the depth of the fluid and is expressed in many different units, including pounds per square inch or kilopascals.

Process Engineering Term - I

IDC (Intangible Drilling Costs) - All cost incurred in drilling a well other than equipment or leasehold. These expenses are 100% tax deductible even if the well is productive.

IP (Initial Production) - Production from a well is generally broken down into three categories: a. Flush or Initial b. Settled c. Stripper. It is important to realize that a well cannot maintain the flow rates it made during the first stages of its life.

IADC - International Association of Drilling Contractors.

impeller - a set of mounted blades used to impart motion to a fluid air or gas (such as, the rotor of a centrifugal pump).

impermeable - preventing the passage of fluid. A formation may be porous yet impermeable if there is an absence of connecting passages between the voids within it. See permeability.

impression block - a block with lead or another relatively soft material on its bottom. It is made up on drill pipe or tubing at the surface, run into a well, and set down on the object that has been lost in the well. The block is retrieved and the impression is examined. The impression is a mirror image of the top of the fish; it also indicates the fish’s position in the hole, for example, whether it is centered or off to one side. From this information, the correct fishing tool may be selected.

induction log - an electric well log in which the conductivity of the formation rather than the resistivity is measured. Because oil-bearing formations are less conductive of electricity than water-bearing formations, an induction survey, when compared with resistivity readings, can aid in determination of oil and water zones.

inflatable packer - a packer with an element that inflates by means of gas or liquid pumped from the surface through a line. It is deflated by means of slots that can be opened to allow the gas or liquid to flow out. They are used when a temporary packer is needed in a hole.

injection gas - 1. a high-pressure gas injected into a formation to maintain or restore reservoir pressure. 2. gas injected in gas-lift operations.

injection log - a survey used to determine the injection profile, that is, to assign specific volumes or percentages to each of the formations taking fluid in an injection well. The injection log is also used to check for casing or packer leaks, proper cement jobs, and fluid migration between zones.

injection water - water that is introduced into a reservoir to help drive hydrocarbons to a producing well.

injection well - a well through which fluids are injected into an underground stratum to increase reservoir pressure and to displace oil. Also called input well.

injector head - a control head for injecting coiled tubing into a well that seals off the tubing and makes a pressure tight connection.

inland barge rig - an off shore drilling structure consisting of a barge on which the drilling equipment is constructed. It is positioned on location, then the barge is sunk.

insert - 1. a cylindrical object, rounded, blunt, or chisel-shaped on one end and usually made of tungsten carbide, that is inserted in the cones of a bit, the cutters of a reamer, or the blades of a stabilizer to form the cutting element of the bit or the reamer or the wear surface of the stabilizer. Also called a compact.

insert pump - a sucker rod pump that is run into the well as a complete unit.

intake valve - 1. the mechanism on an engine through which air and sometimes fuel are admitted to the cylinder. 2. on a mud pump, the valve that opens to allow mud to be drawn into the pump by the pistons moving in the liners.

intermediate casing string - the string of casing set in a well after the surface casing but before production casing is set to keep the hole from caving and to seal off formations. In deep wells, one or more intermediate strings may be required.

internal cutter - a fishing tool containing metal-cutting knives that is lowered into the inside of a length of pipe stuck in the hole to cut the pipe. The severed portion of the pipe can then be returned to the surface. Compare external cutter.

International Association of Drilling Contractors (IADC) - an organization of drilling contractors, oil and gas companies, and service companies that sponsors or conducts research on education, accident prevention, drilling technology, and other matters of interest to its membership and their employees. Its official publication is The Drilling Contractor.