Oil & Gas Glossary 1.0

B=nominal catalog breaking strength of the wire rope, and

A cable composed of steel wires twisted around a central core of fiber or steel wire to create a rope of great strength and considerable flexibility. Wire rope is used as drilling line (in rotary and cable-tool rigs), coring line, servicing line, winch line, and so on. It is often called cable or wireline; however, wireline is a single, slender metal rod, usually very flexible. Compare wireline.

Broken or frayed strands of the steel wire that makes up the outer wrapping of wire rope.

A measurement of load safety for wire rope obtained by using the following formula: Safety Factor - B/W where:

A rope or cable used to steady a mast or pole.

To have rigged up wire rope and sheaves or blocks for hoisting.

A wire-rope loop for use in lifting heavy equipment.

To flatten and spread the strands in a wire rope.

1. an arrangement of pulleys and wire rope or chain used for lifting heavy objects; a winch or similar device.

W = calculated total static load. Also called design factor.

To string a wire rope drilling line through the sheaves of the traveling and crown blocks to the hoisting drum.

A wire rope used to support the drilling tools. Also called the rotary line.

The section of a drawworks drum grooved for angle control and in which the wire rope crosses over to start a new wrap. Also called an angle-control section.

A small loose fiber rope.

1. to force pipe or tools into a high-pressure well that has not been killed (i.e., to run pipe or tools into the well against pressure when the weight of pipe is not great enough to force the pipe through the BOPs). Snubbing usually requires an array of wireline bocks and wire rope that forces the pipe or tools into the well through a stripper head or blowout preventer until the weight of the string is sufficient to overcome the lifting effect of the well pressure on the pipe in the preventer. In workover operations, snubbing is usually accomplished by using hydraulic power to force the pipe through the stripping head or blowout preventer.

A device to connect the wireline to the tool string.

To pass (as a rope) through a hole or opening in a block or similar device.

A spool-shaped attachment on a winch around which rope is wound for hoisting and pulling.

Chain or rope used to tie down loads of equipment, or the "boomer" used to tighten the chains.

N. 1. a piece of cloth, rope or nylon strand used to mark the wireline when swabbing or bailing.

A U-bolt or similar device used to fasten parts of a wire cable together.

A piece of wood or concrete, usually buried, to which a wire guy line is attached for bracing a mast or tower.

A device to which a guy wire or brace may be attached, such as the anchoring device for the deadline of a hoisting-block arrangement.

A device placed on a piece of equipment that is lowered into a wellbore so that the equipment may be retrieved by wire line.

A pipe that is perforated and often arranged with a wire wrapping to act as a sieve to prevent or minimize the entry of sand particles into the wellbore. Also called a screen pipe.

A method of well completion in which a slotted or perforated liner, often wire-wrapped, is placed in the well and surrounded by gravel. If open hole, the well is sometimes enlarged by underreaming at the point where the gravel is packed. The mass of gravel excludes sand from the wellbore but allows continued production.

A measure of fineness of a woven material, screen, or sieve; e.g., a 200-mesh sieve has 200 openings per linear inch. A 200-mesh screen with a wire diameter of 0.0021 in. (0.0533 mm) has an opening of 0.074 mm, or will pass a particle of 74 microns. See micron.

A device that is fastened to the outside of casing to remove mud cake from the wall of a hole to condition the hole for cementing. By rotating or moving the casing string up and down as it is being run into the hole, the scratcher, formed of stiff wire, removes the cake so that the cement can bond solidly to the formation.