How to Speak Fluent Petroleumese

Some of the colorful terms in the oil and gas industry:

Dry hole: Well that fails to produce oil and gas in commercial quantities.

Independents: Smaller companies, often individuals or partnerships, that explore and produce oil and natural gas at the well, then sell it to majors or independent refineries. Their business begins and ends at the wellhead.

Majors: Big companies like Exxon and Shell that produce petroleum products from start to finish. They explore for new reserves and sell the final products to consumers at gas stations.

Production: Getting oil and gas out of the ground into pipelines and tanks.

Reserves: Oil or gas that has been found underground. Major companies try to find enough new oil and gas each year to replace what they have taken from existing wells.

Roughneck: A worker on an oil drilling rig, especially a member of the crew that feeds pipe into the well.

Royalty: Money paid to a landowner for oil produced on his or her land.

Stripper well: Well that produces 10 barrels or less a day.

Three-dimensional seismic surveying: A method of using sound waves to get a picture of underground geologic structures.

Wildcatter: Individual or company who takes the risk of prospecting for oil where it hasn’t been found before.