Important Terms for Oilfield Operator

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August 14, 2020

Written By: Raed Al-Obaidi

Oilfield Operator:
If you work at am oilfield, you need to understand the main and basic oilfield terms, this
will help you better understand the operation sequence, and clarifies the whole matter for
you.

In this article, you will find a collection of the important Oilfield terms; so let us begin:

Heavy Crude Oil: when the API of the crude Oil is between 10◦ and 22.3◦.

Light Crude Oil: when the API of the crude Oil is more than 31.1◦.

Sour Oil : the crude oil that contains more than 0.5% of
sulfur, it is undesired because it has many bad effects
such as: it causes corrosion to the equipment and
pipelines, it is hard to refine, and it poisons the catalyst.

Sweet Oil : the crude oil that contains less than 0.5% of
sulfur.

Wellhead and X-mas Tree: it is an assembly of valves

and fittings that are used to regulate the flow of Xmass Tree
hydrocarbon liquids and gasses from well, it might be
an oil, gas condensate or water injection well.

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Choke Valve: this valve is used to regulate the flow and
pressure from the well, it is in different types, but the most
common one is the one with 64 grade basis; i.e., if the
choke is 32/64 opening, it means half an inch opening.

Flowline: you need to transfer the hydrocarbon fluids

“liquids and gasses” from the wellhead to the first oilfield
facility, it comes with different sizes varies from 1 – 24
inches, there are many factors that determines its size such
as the design pressure and the maximum flow, it contains Heavy Oil Vs. Light Oil
many flanges and valves of different classes “150 – 300
– 600 – 900 – 1500 – 2500” , it is connected to a
manifold inside the facility.

Valve: a mechanical device used to regulate the amount

and the pressure of the fluids passing through it, it is
used for many reasons such as: fully close or fully open,
restrict and maintain the required flow, prevent reverse
flow and relieve pressure “Safety Valves”.

Check Valve : it is used to prevent reverse – flow , in Choke Valve

other words; one – direction flow Valve, this valve
protects the equipment affected by reverse flow, for example
when the well is stopped because of low well pressure, it might
be a reverse flow from the oil facility to the well, this reverse flow
will be prevented by Check Valve.

Strainer : it is an equipment used to eliminate the small solid Check Valve

particles and prevent them entering the equipment, in this way
you can reduce the maintenance periods, there are 2 main types of strainers: Y-Type
strainers and Basket Type Strainers, Strainers are installed before pumps, heat
exchangers, control valves, gas turbine combustion chambers and many other
equipment.

GOR : or Gas Oil Ratio, it is the ratio of the produced gas to the produced oil under the
same conditions “same pressure and temperature “, to better understand this term; let’s
assume a well with GOR equals 300, this means that each barrel of oil produced from this
well will be associated with the 300 standard cubic feet of gas.

Manifold : is a number of pipes and valves used to determine the amount of

hydrocarbons entering each separator or tank, it can be used in many other locations
such as tank farms, well manifold and any other pipe distribution or gathering.

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Header : any pipe used to gather oil,
gas or water from different lines and
transfer it to the next process unit, for
example; in GOSPs there are many
headers, used to gather oil, gas and
water from multiple separators.

Storage Tank : it is a cylindrical or

spherical vessel used to store oil or
water, it is used in different stages of oil
production and treatment facilities.

Instrument Air System : used to

produce dry compressed air which is
used in control valves, it consists of air
compressor(s) , dryer(s), and instrument
air lines which carries dry compressed
Manifold
air to the control valves in the facility.

Flare System : safely burn the excess hydrocarbon gases that can not be recovered or
recycled, it consists of flare stack, and flame arrestor which eliminates hydrocarbon liquid
drops to prevent their burn in the flare.

GOSP : an abbreviation for Gas Oil Separator Plant, or Degassing Stations in some other
text books, it is the facility in which associated gas and water are separated from oil, and
is the first stage of crude oil processing, the separation process happens by separator(s),
then each stream is gathered by a header to be processed separately.

Hydrogen Sulfide H2S : a poisonous gas exists in associated gas, very dangerous, and
a naturally occurring component of crude oil and natural gas.

Produced Water : the water separated from crude oil using Wet Crude Treatment Facility
in addition to the Free Water separated from oil in the GOSPs. it is treated, then either
injected to the reservoir or used in irrigation.

Separator : a vessel used to separate associated gas and water from crude oil. it comes
in different shapes such as vertical, horizontal or spherical, and may be used as
production or test separator.

for more details about separators, read this article Gas Oil Separators

Emergency Shut Down Valve : which is also known as ESDV, from its name we can see
that its used in emergency cases such as high pressure or level, it shuts down the whole
facility by isolating the inlet streams to the process. it is used in many cases, such as
very high level, temperature or pressure, it will shut down the whole process by cutting
the feed and sometimes reliefs the gas to the flares to ensure the safety of the facility.

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Pressure Safety Valve : which is also
known as PSV, is used to relieve excessive
pressure from tanks or vessels from any
increase beyond the specified design
pressure or maximum allowable working
pressure.

Vessel Manhole : it is a blind flange of a

big size 20″ or greater, used in
maintenance cases.

Mist Extractor : it is an internal part of gas

separator, used to eliminate small oil
droplets escaped with separated gas.

Wave Breaker : mechanical plates

installed vertically used in horizontal ESDV
separators to prevent waves in liquid level,
which confuses the liquid level controller and make it give different readings.

Vortex Breaker : it is a mechanical structure in certain shape used to prevent vortex near
any liquid outlet.

3-phase separator

Foaming in separators : caused by many factors but mostly because of the crude oil
nature, to prevent this, you can add defoamer chemicals , or by installing Defoaming
Plates which are parallel inclined plates inside the separator, foaming cause reduction of
separator volume then decreasing the retention time unless the separator is designed to
deal with foaming.

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Retention Time : the time which the compound spends in a vessel or a column, it is a
very vital parameter when designing any vessel, because of the operation requirement of
each component, simply; it is calculated by dividing volume of the vessel on the
volumetric flowrate.

Carry-Over : it means liquid droplets escaping with gas phase, it is one of the most
common problems in oil industry.

Emulsion Water : consider water in oil emulsion, when water is dispersed in oil, each
water droplet is surrounded with a thick film of emulsifiers.

Emulsification : two liquids which are not soluble in each other, but one of them is
dispersed, it depends on the chemical nature of the two liquids and the viscosity.

Demulsifier : high molecular weight polymers, used to break emulsions tries to equalize
the effect of emulsifiers by reducing the surface tension of the water droplet, and
weakening the emulsion film.

Wash Water : it is used to remove salts from crude oil by reducing the concentration of
salt solution , it is very important to understand that the wash water ration is very critical,
because adding a little amount of it will not be sufficient to dissolve salts, on the other
hand; adding too much water will cause the wash water to be emulsified.

Natural Gas : is complex mixture of hydrocarbon compounds especially methane with

little amounts of nitrogen and oxygen, it has 2 types: associated gas and free gas.

Associated Gas : the dissolved natural gas with crude oil because of the high reservoir
pressure, it is produced with oil, then separated in GOSPs

Free Gas : it is produced from gaseous reservoirs.

Corrosion Inhibitor System :Consists of a tank, 2 pumps and injectors, it is used to

inject corrosion inhibitor to gas, oil and water lines, especially in the lines expected to
corrode internally.

Burn Pit : it is the pit in which volatile hydrocarbon liquids are burnt, they should be large
enough to contain the maximum flame .

Compressor Anti – Surge System : when the compressor suction pressure decreases,
a surge happens in the suction, and causes many problems, to prevent this; Anti-Surge
System was invented, this system receives many signals: compressor suction flowrate,
suction and discharge pressures and suction gas temperature, all these values enter this
system which in turn gives a feedback to a recycle valve called Anti – Surge Valve to
recycle some of the discharged compressed gas to prevent surge.

for more details, read Surge Control in Centrifugal Compressors

Gas Dew Point : is the temperature (at a given pressure) at which the gas starts to
condense out of the gaseous phase.

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Tri Ethylene Glycol TEG : is colorless liquid used widely in gas dehydration units, its
most important feature is that it absorbs water from gas in large quantities, and can be
regenerated to 99.9% concentration again.

Hydrates : crystalline materials composed of water and gas “typically methane” , ice –
liked , simply; it is gas trapped in within crystalline structure.

for more details, read What are Hydrates and Hydrate Prevention

Control Valves: the valves used to control

pressure, temperature, flow , level or any other
operation variable, they are used to decrease
human operation mistakes, they are used widely in
industry in general, and in oilfield facilities in
specific.

Interlock : a control protection system used to

protect the equipment from human mistakes, for
example: it will not allow the pump to operate
when the storage tank level is too low; in this way
it will protect the tank from collapse due to vacuum
pressure.

Heat Exchanger : it is one of the most important equipment used in oilfield facility, it is
used for the heat transfer between two fluids, i.e. ; transfers heat from the hot fluid to the
cold fluid, and cools the hot fluid also in the same process, it is a way to conserve energy
by decreasing the fuel quantity used for this purpose, and it is an economic way also, and
that’s way it is called economizer sometimes, it is to be mentioned that there are many
types of heat transfer equipment such as: reboiler, cooling towers, heaters, air cooler and
condensers, while the most famous types of heat transfer are: shell and tube, plate and
frame.

Storage Tank : cylindrical or spherical vessel used to store crude oil, produced or wash
water and fire water.

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