Anderseed's Oilpatch Expressions Defined for the Layman (4)

from R. D. Langenkamp. Handbook of Oil Industry Terms & Phrases. 4th Ed. Tulsa: PennWell Publ, 1984, 347 p **

Ida Tarbell. "History of the Standard Oil Company," from McClure's Magazine, 1902 - 1904.

cheap_priceless_editions (at) yahoo (dot) ca

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Oil Trip: Nigeria, Chad, Liberia

By EMIRA WOODS

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(Previous posts: 1) annunciator, Australian offset, bait box, bastard, bean, behind the pipe, big-inch pipeline, bird cage, and bird dog, 2) spudding bit, bituminous sand, black oil, black oils market, block tree, bobtail, bobtail plant, bogies, boll weevil, boomer, BOPD, 3) brass pounder, bristle pig, bronc, caliche, company camp, carbon black, carbon plant)

CHATTER
A noisy indication that a mechanical part is behaving erratically and destructively.

CHEATER
A length of pipe used to increase the leverage of a wrench, anything used to lengthen a handle to increase the applied leverage.

CHEESE BOX
An early-day, square, box-like refining vessel; a still to heat crude oil for distilling the products in those days--kerosene, gas oil, and lubricating oil.

CHURN DRILLING
Another name for cable-tool drilling because of the up-and-down, churning motion of the drill bit.

CIRCLE JACK
A device used on the floor of a cable-tool rig to 'make up' and 'break out' (tighten and loosen) joints of drilling tools. (shortened)

CITY GATE
The measuring point at which a gas distributing utility receives gas from a gas transmission company.

COLLAR POUNDER OR 'PECKER'
A pipeline worker who beats time with a hammer on the coupling into which a joint of pipe is being screwed by a tong gang. The purpose is twofold: to keep the tong men pulling in unison and to warm up the collar so that a tighter screw joint can be made.

COME-ALONG
A lever and short lengths of chain with hooks attached to the ends of the chains used for tightening or pulling a chain. (shortened)

CONDEMNATION
The taking of land by purchase, at fair market value, for public use and benefit by state or federal government as well as by certain other agencies and utility companies having power of eminent domain.

CORE BOAT
A seagoing vessel for drilling core holes in offshore areas.

CROOKED-HOLE COUNTRY
Said of an area or field in which there has been a high incidence of crooked holes drilled, boreholes that have deviated alarmingly from the vertical . . . See Pendulum Drill Assembly; also Fanning the Bottom.

CROWBAR CONNECTION
A humorous reference to an assemblage of pipe fittings so far out of alignment that a crowbar is required to force them to fit.