Oil & Gas Glossary 1.0

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.

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

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.

The topmost portion of a string of sucker rods. It is used for lifting fluid by the rod-pumping method. It has a uniform diameter and is smoothly polished to seal pressure effectively in the stuffing box attached to the top of the well.

A heavy-duty steel, T-shaped pipe fitting that is screwed or flanged to the top of a pumping well. The polished rod works through a stuffing box on top of the tee and in the run of the tee to operate a sucker rod pump in the well. Pumped fluid is discharged through the side opening of the tee.

A pulley that is normally attached to the wellhead at a convenient place for the wireline to pass through as it comes from the stuffing box sheave before being spooled onto the wireline reel. The hay pulley prevents any lateral force from being exerted on the lubricator and the wellhead.