Oil & Gas Glossary 1.0

The metal part that compresses and holds packing in place in a stuffing box. See stuffing box.

A blowout prevention device consisting of a gland and packing arrangement bolted to the wellhead. It is often used to seal the annular space between tubing and casing.

A device used to form a seal around a reciprocating or rotating rod (as in a pump) to prevent fluid leakage. Specifically, the movable part of a stuffing box by which the packing is compressed.

A device that prevents leakage along a piston, rod, propeller shaft, or other moving part that passes through a hole in a cylinder or vessel. It consists of a box or chamber made by enlarging the hole and a gland containing compressed packing. On a well being artificially lifted by means of a sucker rod pump, the polished rod operates through a stuffing box, preventing escape of oil and diverting it into a side outlet to which is connected the flow line leading to the oil and gas separator or to the field storage tank. For a bottomhole pressure test, the wireline goes through a stuffing box and lubricator, allowing the gauge to be raised and lowered against well pressure. The lubricator provides a pressure-tight grease seal in the stuffing box.

(n) a device with an elastomer packing element that depends on pressure below the packing to effect a seal in the annulus. Used primarily to run or pull pipe under low or moderate pressures. This device is not dependable for service under high differential pressures. Also called a stripper.

The set of dense rubber, washer-shaped pieces encircling a packer, which are designed to expand against casing or formation face to seal off the annulus.

A sealing ring on either side of the center packing element to limit its extrusion

A sub with a glass blockage in the bore, used to isolate a surge chamber in gravel packing or perforation cleaning operations.

A circular device with a frictional gripping arrangement of slips and packing rings used to suspend casing from a casinghead in a well

An elastic material made of synthetic rubber or plastic; often the main component of the packing material in blowout preventers and downhole packers.

An arrangement of slips and packing rings used to suspend tubing from a tubing head.

Preventers installed on top of the well or drill string as a precautionary measure while running wirelines. The preventer packing will close around the wireline.

A type of packer used for open-hole work, with inflatable packing elements

A heavy, flanged steel fitting connected to the first string of casing. It provides a housing for slips and packing assemblies, allows suspension of intermediate and production strings of casing, and supplies the means for the annulus to be sealed off. Also called a spool.

A packer used for the well completion method of gravel packing.

A method of well completion in which a slotted or perforated liner, often wire-wrapped, is placed in the well and surrounded by gravel. If open hole, the well is sometimes enlarged by underreaming at the point where the gravel is packed. The mass of gravel excludes sand from the wellbore but allows continued production.

A preventer having a unit of packing material whose closure depends on well pressure coming from below. It is used primarily to strip pipe through the hole or allow pipe to be moved with pressure on the annulus.

A cast-iron or magnesium drillable tool consisting of a packing assembly and a back-pressure valve. It is used to close off the annular space between tubing or drill pipe and casing to allow the placement of cement or fluid through the tubing or drill pipe at any predetermined point behind the casing or liner, around the shoe, or into the open hole around the shoe.

A type of gravel pack where the wells production packer is removed and a service packer is run in with the gravel pack assembly. After packing, the service tool is retrieved and the production packer rerun.

A piece of downhole equipment, consisting of a sealing device, a holding or setting device, and an inside passage for fluids, used to block the flow of fluids through the annular space between the tubing and the wall of the wellbore by sealing off the space between them. It is usually made up in the tubing string some distance above the producing zone. A packing element expands to prevent fluid flow except through the inside bore of the packer and into the tubing. Packers are classified according to configuration, use, and method of setting and whether or not they are retrievable (that is, whether they can be removed when necessary, or whether they must be milled or drilled out and thus destroyed).