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Learn the lingo of Engineers, Roughnecks and Drillers and all those who work Onshore and Offshore. Get the lowdown on The Doghouse, Wildcats, Pigging, Christmas Trees, ROVs, Umbilicals and more.

Weird Terms You Might Hear If You Work In The Oil And Gas Industry

An oil platform is a large structure with facilities to drill wells, to extract and process oil and natural gas, or to temporarily store product until it can be brought to shore for refining and marketing. The jacket refers to the lower section or the leg-structure of an offshore steel-piled platform.

The lower section or legs

Where would you find a jacket on an oil platform?

The doghouse is a general-purpose meeting space, shelter, communications office and tool shed on the rig for the drilling crew, where they can plan and carry out drilling operations.

Inside a shelter on a rig

If you are in the Doghouse, you'd be...

A Christmas tree is an assembly of valves, spools, and fittings on top of the casing which controls the production rate of oil. The primary function of a tree is to control the flow (usually oil or gas) out of the well but it may also be used to control the injection of gas or water into a non-producing well to enhance production rates of oil from other wells.

To control the flow of oil or gas out of the well

What are Christmas Trees used for?

Spudding-in describes the process of beginning to drill a well by removing rock, dirt and other sedimentary material with the drill bit. To spud a well means to begin drilling operations.

At the very beginning of drilling operations of a new well

If you are Spudding-in, you'd be...

A nodding donkey is the colloquial name for a conventional onshore wellhead production beam pump - a type of pump used on land to extract oil if it is not carried to the surface naturally by internal pressure. Other names include a pumpjack , oil horse, donkey pumper, horsehead pump, rocking horse, beam pump, dinosaur, gashopper pump, Big Texan, thirsty bird or jack pump.

A drilling land pump

A Nodding Donkey is a...

Sky-Walkers are Rope Access Workers who work on inspection, repair and maintenance of an oil platform. They use ropes and harnesses to work at height. They prefer the nickname Sky-Walkers as they can sometimes cruelly be called Dopes on Ropes!

Rope Access Workers

Sky-Walkers are...

A derrick is on the rig floor. The pylon structure holds the drilling apparatus on a rig. It is high enough to allow new sections of drill pipe to be added to the drilling apparatus as drilling progresses and provides the vertical lifting capacity needed for drilling a well.

On the drill floor

Where would you see a Derrick?

The Offshore Installation Manager (OIM) is the head honcho of the Platform. The buck starts (and often stops) here.

Offshore Installation Manager

An OIM stands for...

A wildcat well refers to the process of drilling for oil or natural gas in an unproven area, that has no concrete historic production records and has been unexplored as a site for potential oil and gas output.

A well that is speculatively drilled to try to find oil and gas

What is a Wildcat?

Pigging uses devices known as pigs to perform cleaning, inspection and maintenance operations on a pipeline. Pigs are bullet-shaped, or spherical capsules which are inserted into a pipeline flow and travel along it with the fluid. This is done without stopping the flow of the product. Pigs are inserted into a pig launcher or launching station. The launcher is closed and the pressure-driven flow of the product in the pipeline is used to push it along down the pipe until it reaches the receiving trap, pig catcher or receiving station. The original pigs were made from straw wrapped in wire which made a squealing noise while traveling through the pipe, giving rise to their name.

Using pigs to clean pipelines

What exactly is Pigging?

An umbilical is a cable which supplies required consumables to an apparatus. An umbilical can supply air and power to a pressure suit or hydraulic power, electrical power and fiber optics to subsea equipment.

A subsea cable that supplies power underwater

An Umbilical is a...

A fish is any unwanted object down a well, commonly the lower end of a drill string which has broken off. Fishing is trying to recover the fish, using various attachments to the drill stem or wireline, known as fishing tools.

Retrieving an obstructive object that falls accidentally into the well

What is Fishing?

On drillships and offshore oil rigs, Toolpushers are department heads in charge of the drilling department. Toolpushers are in charge of keeping the rig in all necessary tools, equipment, and supplies and in recent times frequently do paperwork related to the rig crew regarding payroll, benefits, and related matters. Toolpushers are also responsible for coordinating services with third party companies related to the drilling of the well.

The department head in charge of the drilling department

What is a Toolpusher?

Remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs) are underwater robots that allow the controller to be located above the water. They are primarily used for observation and inspection of subsea environments via an underwater camera and some can carry out repair work with robotic arms.

Remotely Operated Underwater Vehicle

An ROV stands for...

Floating Production Storage and Offloading Vessels (FPSOs) are offshore production facilities that house both processing equipment and storage for produced hydrocarbons. Usually tied to multiple subsea wells, FPSOs gather hydrocarbons from subsea production wells through a series of pipelines. Once tapped by subsea wells, hydrocarbons are transmitted through flowlines to risers, which transport the oil and gas from the seafloor to the vessel's turret and then to the FPSO on the water's surface.

Floating Production Storage and Offloading Vessels

An FPSO stands for...

You're probably an engineer or already work in the oil and gas industry, since you seem to have a top grasp of oil and gas jargon. You love solving any kind of problem, and can't watch a single episode of Myth Busters without yelling at the screen exactly everything they got wrong.

The OIM

You are familiar with a few terms in oil and gas. Perhaps you have a close friend or relative who works in the industry. You probably hail from Aberdeen, Scotland or another oil and gas city around the world.

The Roughneck

You're fairly new to oil and gas terms and need to swot up on the jargon before you can fully converse with those drilling engineers and offshore workers.

The Roustabout

You're just learning the ropes and you really need to brush up on your oil and gas lingo so you can fully converse with those drilling engineers and offshore workers.

The Apprentice

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Weird Terms You Might Hear If You Work In The Oil And Gas Industry

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