B

Back Pressure Valve: A ¤ow control valve that provides some control when running or pulling a string. Back Reamer: A tool to enlarge a drilled hole. Back Scuddling: Reverse circulating. Back-Side: The annulus above the packer. Back-Stopping: Arranging for alternate supplies of gas in the event the primary source fails to deliver. Back Surge: Sudden back¤ow of a well, usually to clean the perforations. Backup Ring (Seals): A ridged ring-like support next to a seal to provide higher pressure or temperature support. Backup Wrench or Tong: A tool that keeps the pipe string from rotating while a joint is made up. Backwardation: (1) A market where the current or near-term delivery prices are higher than that for further forward months. The opposite of backwardation is contango-a market situation where prices are higher for forward delivery dates than for nearer delivery dates. (2) A market situation for rened oil product prices. Backwardation occurs where future anticipated prices are lower than current or near-term prices. (3) A market situation in which prompt physical crude or rened product sells at a premium to forward months’ prices for the same commodity. An inverted market; the opposite of contango. Back Wash: (1) Usually reverse circulation. (2) The process of reversing the ¤ow of water through the lter media to remove the entrapped solids. Bacteria: (1) Single-celled organisms that probably provide the bulk of the biomass on our planet. There are more bacterial cells within the human body than human cells. One of the most interesting things about bacteria is that our macroscopic concepts of species are rather inappropriate; genetic material can be swapped from one species to another with disturbing ease, leading some scientists to call bacteria a superorganism. The fantastic durability and longevity of bacteria (some concentrate plutonium inside themselves and happily live inside high level-nuclear waste facilities, while others are believed to have survived for tens of millions of years in rock formations) have led some other scientists to speculate they are adapted to life in deep space and are continually raining down on us from above. (2) Primitive organisms (mostly plants) that are generally free of pigment and reproduce by dividing in one, two, or three planes. They are single-celled, do not require light for their life processes, and can be grown in special cultures out of their native environment. Bacterial Culture: In the case of activated sludge, bacterial culture refers to the group of bacteria, classed as aerobes, and facultative organisms (see Facultive organisms) and covers a wide range of organisms. Most treatment processes in the United States grow facultative organisms which utilize the carbonaceous (carbon compounds) BOD. Facultative organisms can live when oxygen resources are low. The nitrifying organisms, obligate

aerobes (require oxygen), must have at least 0.8 mg/L of dissolved oxygen throughout the whole system to function properly during nitrication process. Bacterial Degradation: Breaking down alkanes by bacterial action. Commonly by pseudomonis and ultramonis bacteria and other bacterial strains that digest parts of the crude oil structures. Useful for remediating oil spills or tank-bottom residuals. Bacterial Oxidation and Reduction: Reactions involving aerobic decay, organic matter oxidation, fermentation, anaerobic decay, etc. Bacterial Remediation: Liquefaction or break down of oily waste or clean up of oil spills using naturally occurring oil consuming bacteria, chie¤y ultramonis and pseudomonis. Bactericide: (1) An additive to inhibit bacterial growth in aqueous component or phase of ¤uids, preventing bacterial degradation of the ¤uid and the resulting foul odors. (2) A product that kills bacteria in the water or on the surface of the pipe. Bafœes: Plates in a separator on which the ¤ow impinges and breaks out gas. Bag-Off: In¤atable devices in a pipeline meant to stop ¤ow. BAHX: See Brazed aluminum heat exchanger. Bail: A cylindrical steel bar (similar to the handle or bail of a bucket, but much larger) that supports the swivel and connects it to the hook. Bailer: (1) A hollow tube with a trap door or ball seat, run on wireline, which can be used to spot or remove solid material from a well bore. (2) A long, cylindrical container tted with a valve at its lower end, used to remove water, sand, mud, drilling cuttings, or oil from a well in cable-tool drilling. Balance: The amount of gas put into the pipeline and the amount of gas taken out of the pipeline are equal on a xed time basis. Balanced Plug: A cement plug set with no downhole ¤ow conditions, which allows temporary or permanent shut off in a well. It takes into account the densities of all ¤uid columns, both in the string and in the annulus. Balance Point: The point at which forces acting on a pipe in a well (usually while running) are equal. Balance Point (Coiled Tubing or Snubbing): Static condition of the length of tubing in the well, where buoyed tube weight (well ¤uid sensitive) equals the well pressure acting against the cross-sectional area of the tube. The balance point does not include any frictional forces exerted due to the friction with the well or the stripper assembly. Balancing: (1) The requirement imposed by both electricity grids and natural gas pipelines that demands supply and demand to be equal over a certain time period. (2) The practice by shippers of offsetting (balancing) their gas deliveries from the pipeline with injections of gas supplies into the pipeline on a regular basis. Balancing Agreement: Contractual agreement between legal parties to account  for differences between chart-measured quantities and

total-conrmed quantities at a measuring point such as a plant. They are used to track over/under production relative to entitlements between producers; over/under deliveries relative to measured volumes between operators of wells, pipelines, and LDCs. Balancing Item: Differences between the sum of the components of natural gas supply and the sum of the components of natural gas disposition. These differences may be due to quantities lost or to the effects of data-reporting problems. Reporting problems include differences due to the net result of conversions of ¤ow data metered at varying temperature and pressure bases and converted to a standard temperature and pressure base; the effect of variations in company accounting and billing practices; differences between billing cycle and calendar period time frames; and imbalances resulting from the merger of data-reporting systems that vary in scope, format, denitions, and type of respondents. Balancing Service: Gas balancing service that accommodates imbalances between actual customer usage and the gas delivered for that customer’s use. Ball-and-Seat Valve: A device used to restrict ¤uid ¤ow to one direction. It  consists of a polished sphere, or ball, usually of metal, and an annular piece, the seat, ground and polished to form a seal with the surface of the ball. Gravitational force or the force of a spring holds the ball against the seat. Flow in the direction of the force is prevented, while ¤ow in the opposite direction overcomes the force and unseats the ball. Ballast: (1) Heavy substances loaded by a vessel to improve stability, trimming, sea-keeping, and to increase the immersion at the propeller. Seawater ballast is commonly loaded in most vessels in ballast tanks, positioned in compartments right at the bottom and in some cases on the sides, called wing tanks. On a tanker, ballast is seawater that is taken into the cargo tanks to submerge the vessel to a proper trim. (2) An electrical circuit component used with ¤uorescent lamps to provide the voltage necessary to strike the mercury arc within the lamp, and then to limit the amount of current that ¤ows through the lamp. Ballasting: Ballasting commences as soon as possible after the completion of discharge and nal draining. It involves taking ballast (water) into either separately segregated tanks or into cargo tanks. Ballast Tank: Compartments at the bottom or on the sides of a ship that are lled with liquids for stability and to make the ship seaworthy. Any shipboard tank or compartment on a tanker normally used for carrying salt water ballast. When these compartments or tanks are not connected with the cargo system, they are called segregated ballast tanks or systems. Ball Catcher: A cylinder at the surface to catch ball sealers before the ¤uid is routed through the choke. Ball Diverter: Ball sealer. Ball Dropper: A device that injects balls into the ¤owing treating ¤uid downstream of the high pressure pump. Ballooning (Drilling): A phenomenon in which ¤uids are lost to the rock  during over-pressured operations, as found in increased pressures

from  equivalent circulating density operations, and then ¤ow back when pressure is reduced. This should not be confused with a kick. Ballooning (Pipe): An increase in pipe outside diameter (OD) as internal pressure is applied (shortens pipe). Ball Operated: Mechanical device activated by pumping a ball of a certain size down the tubing in the injected or circulated ¤uid. Ball-Out: (1) The process of effectively shutting off the entire zone and cause pressure to rise sharply when using ball sealers. (2) To plug open perforations by using ball sealers. Ball Sealers: Small, rubber-covered, hard-centered balls that can seal individual perforations during a chemical treatment. Ball (Tool Operation): A steel, aluminum, brass, or plastic ball pumped or dropped downhole to shift or operate a tool. Ball Valve: Any of the several valves that rotate a ball with a ¤ow passage to allow or deny ¤ow. Banana Blade: A banana-shaped reamer blade that allows milling either up or down. Banded Iron Ore: A sediment with alternating layers of chert and iron rich minerals. Band or Banded: An attachment strap to afx cable or capillary tube to the outside of the tubing. Bandwidth: Technically, the difference, in Hertz (Hz), between the highest and lowest frequencies of a transmission channel. Identies the capacity or amount of data that can be sent through a given circuit. B Annulus: An outside annulus, one out from the A annulus, usually production casing × production casing or surface casing. (Note: There may be regional differences in the A, B, and C annulus designations.) Barchan: A crescent-shaped sand dune with a convex face upwind and a concave face downwind. Bare Boat Charter: A charter in which the bare boat is chartered without crew; the charterer, for a stipulated sum takes over the vessel for a stated period of time with a minimum of restrictions; the charterer appoints the master and the crew and pays all running expenses. Barefoot Completion: A very simple, open hole, pay zone completion with minimum downhole equipment. Also called an open hole completion. The casing is usually run to the top of the pay and is cemented above the pay. Bar-Finger Sand: An elongated lens of sand formed during the distribution of sediment in a delta. Barge: Non-self-propelled marine vessels used as cargo tankers, equipment and supply carriers, crane platforms, and support and accommodation bases in offshore drilling, and as submarine pipe-laying vessels. Bar (Geologic): A mass of sand or other materials deposited in the bed of a stream channel. Bar Hole: A hole of small diameter made in the ground to obtain a sample for searching a gas leak in a pipeline.