1.

Barium sulfate; a mineral frequently used to increase the weight or density of drilling mud.

Its relative density is 4.2 (or 4.2 times denser than water).

See barium sulfate, mud.

2.

Weighting material with a specific gravity of 4.37 used to increase the apparent density of a liquid drilling fluid system.

Barite [baso4] is the most common weighting agent used today.

It is a mined material ground to an api specification such that particle sizes are predominantly in the 3 to 74 micron range.

Ph value above 7 and the ability to neutralize or accept protons from acids

An assembly of pulleys on a common framework; in mechanics, one or more pulleys, or sheaves, mounted to rotate on a common axis.

The crown block is an assembly of sheaves mounted on beams at the top of the derrick.

The drilling line is reeved over the sheaves of the crown block alternately which the sheaves of the traveling block, which is raised and lowered in the derrick by the drilling line.

When elevators are attached to a hook on the traveling block and drill pipe latched in the elevators, the pipe can be raised or lowered.

See crown block and traveling block.

1.

To collect a mass of sticky consolidated material, usually drill cuttings, on drill pipe, drill collars, bits, and so forth.

A bit with such material attached to it is called a balled-up bit.

Balling up is frequently the result of inadequate pump pressure or insufficient drilling fluid.

2.

In reference to an anchor, to fail to hold on a soft bottom, pulling out, instead, with a large ball of mud attached.

A substance capable of reacting with an acid to form a salt.

A typical base is sodium hydroxide (caustic), with the chemical formula moh.

For example, sodium hydroxide combines with hydrochloric acid to form sodium chloride (a salt) and water.

See sodium bicarbonate

A colloidal clay, composed primarily of montmorillonite, that swells when wet.

Because of its gel forming properties, bentonite is a major component of water-based drilling muds.

See gel, mud.

See open-hole completion

Balls made of nylon, hard rubber, or both and used to shut off perforations through which excessive fluid is being lost.

To flatten and spread the strands in a wire rope.

A slang term to denote flowing by heads

A choke, used to regulate flow of fluid from a well.

Different sizes of beans are used for different producing rates.

A flow-control device employing a ball with a rotating mechanism to open or close the tubing medium.

1.

A settled volume of barite particles from a barite slurry placed in the wellbore, usually to seal off a pressured zone.

2.

A plug made from barite weighting materials that is placed at the bottom of a wellbore.

Unlike a cement plug, the settled solids do not set solid, yet a barite plug can provide effective and low-cost pressure isolation.

A barite plug is relatively easy to remove and is often used as a temporary facility for pressure isolation or as a platform enabling the accurate placement of treatments above the plug.

A bell-shaped hole dug beneath a pipeline to provide room for use of tools.