- C -
Cable
drilling - A method of well-drilling that employs a reciprocating,
rather than a rotary, motion to penetrate rock. In the nineteenth
century, until Drake's time, power was supplied by men. Drake used
a steam-powered cable rig. Today, cable rigs are powered by gasoline
or diesel engines.
CAOF
(calculated absolute open flow) - A figure representing a gas
well's theoretical producing capability per day.
Capital
Funds - Monies invested in a business for use in conducting
the operations of the business.
Capital
asset - An asset acquired as an investment, for the purpose
of creating a product or service intended to be used in the activities
or operations of a business.
Capital
costs (Oil & Gas Tax Usage) - For Federal income tax purposes,
the costs of capital expenditures which may be recovered by deduction
against income (through depreciation and depletion).
Capital
expenditure - An expenditure intended to benefit the future
activities of a business, usually by adding to the assets of a business,
or by improving an existing asset.
Capitalize
- To treat certain expenditures as capital expenditures for Federal
income tax computations.
Carried
Interest - A fractional working interest in an oil and gas lease
that comes about through an arrangement between co-owners of a working
interest.
Casing
Pipe - used in oil wells to reinforce the borehole. Sometimes
several casings are used, one inside the other. The outer casing,
called the "surface pipe,' shuts out water and serves as a
foundation for subsequent drilling.
Casinghead
- The portion of the casing that protrudes above the surface and
to which control valves and flow pipes are attached.
Casinghead
gas - Natural gas produced from an oil well, as opposed to gas
produced from a gas well.
Casinghead
gasoline - Highly volatile, water-white liquid hydrocarbons
separated from casinghead gas.
Cavings
Rock - Fragments that break off from the walls of a borehole
and fall into the borehole during drilling operations.
Cement
- Fluid cement is mixed at the surface, pumped to the bottom
of a cased well, forced to flow around the lower end of the casing
and up into the space between the casing and the borehole. When
the cement solidifies (sets), it holds the casing in place, and
provides support.
Cement
squeeze - Forcing cement into the perforations, large cracks,
and fissures in the wall of a borehole to seal them off.
Choke
- An orifice installed in a pipeline at the well surface to control
the rate of flow.
Christmas
tree - An assembly of valves, gauges, and chokes mounted on
a well casinghead to control production and the flow of oil to the
pipelines.
Circulate
- To pump drilling fluid into the borehole through the drillpipe
and back up the annulus.
Clean
oil - Crude oil containing less than 1 percent sediment and
water; "pipeline oil", oil clean enough to send through
a pipeline.
CO2
injection - A secondary recovery technique in which carbon dioxide
(CO2) is injected into wells as part of a miscible recovery program.
Coal
gasification - The chemical conversion of coal to synthetic
gaseous fuel.
Coal
liquefaction - The chemical conversion of coal to synthetic
liquid fuel.
Cogeneration
- The combined production of electrical or mechanical energy and
usable heat energy.
Commissions
- Payments to qualified agents of the sponsor of a limited partnership,
for selling interests in it to investors. Commissions may take the
form of a percent of partnership interests sold, an oil and gas
interest, or stock in the sponsor's company.
Common
carrier - A person or company in the business of transporting
the public or goods for a fee. In the industry, a person or company
engaged in the movement of petroleum products, like a public utility.
Completed
well - A well made ready to produce oil or natural gas. Completion
involves cleaning out the well, running steel casing and tubing
into the hole, adding permanent surface control equipment, and perforating
the casing so oil or gas can flow into the well and be brought to
the surface.
Condensate
- Liquid hydrocarbons separated from natural gas, usually by
cooling.
Confirmation
well - A well drilled to "prove" the formation encountered
by an exploratory well.
Connate
water - The water present in a petroleum reservoir in the same
zone occupied by oil and gas considered by some to be the residue
of the primal sea, connate water occurs as a film of water around
each grain of sand in granular reservoir rock and is held in place
by capillary attraction.
Conventional
energy sources - Oil, gas, coal, and sometimes nuclear energy,
in contrast to alternative energy sources such a solar, hydroelectric
and geothermal power, synfuels, and biomass.
Conveyance
- Legal term for transferring the title of a property from one party
to another, typically by deed.
Core
- Samples of subsurface rocks taken as a well is being drilled.
The core allows geologists to examine the strata in proper sequence
and thickness.
Cracking
- The process of breaking down the larger, heavier and more complex
hydrocarbon molecules into simpler and lighter molecules, thus increasing
the gasoline yield from crude oil. Cracking is done by application
of heat and pressure, and in modern time the use of a catalytic
agent.
Crude
oil - Liquid petroleum as it comes out of the ground. Crude
oils range from very light (high in gasoline) to very heavy (high
in residual oils). Sour crude is high in sulfur content. Sweet crude
is low in sulfur and therefore often more valuable.
Crude
oil equivalent - A measure of energy content that converts units
of different kinds of energy into the energy equivalent of barrels
of oil.
Cuttings
- Chips and small rock fragments brought to the surface by the flow
of drilling mud as it is circulated and examined by geologists for
oil content.
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