Engineering Abbreviations and Terminology

Barrels Per Day (BPD)

A metric of oil output is Barrels Per Day (BPD), the number of barrels of oil produced in a day.

Biofuels

Biofuel is a fuel made from biomass using modern techniques instead of relatively slow geological processes that develop fossil fuels like oil. Because biomass can be used directly as a fuel, some people use biomass and biofuel interchangeably.

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS)

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is a proven method of lowering carbon emissions that can help in the fight against global warming. It’s a three-step procedure that involves trapping carbon dioxide produced by power plants or industrial processes like steel or cement production, transferring it, and then burying it deep underground.

Learn more about CCS here.

Carbon Capture, Utlization and Sequestration (CCUS)

Carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS), sometimes known as carbon capture, utilization, and sequestration (CCUS), is a method of capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from sources industrial plants and either reusing or storing them so that they do not enter the environment.

Conceptual Design

Conceptual design is a stage in the design process that defines broad outlines of a product’s purpose and shape. Interactions, experiences, procedures, and strategies are all part of the process.

Construction Management

Construction management is a professional management service that ensures that a project’s time, cost, quality, safety, scope, and function are managed effectively by the project’s owner(s).

Conventional Oil and Gas Facilities

Conventional Resources are oil or gas concentrations found in isolated accumulations or pools. The rock structures that house these pools are often porous and permeable, and they are situated beneath impermeable rock formations.

Cyclic Steam Stimulation (CSS)

Cyclic Steam Stimulation (CSS), sometimes known as “huff and puff,” is a thermal production process that uses a single well to inject steam and generate oil simultaneously.

Energy Sector

The energy sector encompasses all industries engaged in the production and delivery of energy, including fuel extraction, manufacture, refining, and distribution.

Document Management System

A document management system receives, tracks, manage, and stores documents while also reducing paper usage. Most can keep track of the many versions created and edited by different users. Such systems are based on computer programmes in the case of digital document management.

Engineering and Design

Engineers use Engineering Design as a means of identifying and solving challenges. It’s been described and mapped in various ways, but there are specific common characteristics in all of them: Engineering design is a procedure that must be followed. This highly utilized problem-solving strategy is adaptable enough to function in practically any situation.

Engineering, Procurement and Construction Management (EPCM)

Engineering, Procurement, and Construction Management (EPCM) are professional engineering services used to build manufacturing plants and heavy engineering facilities in various industries.

              

Engineering Standards

Engineering or technical criteria, methods, processes, and practices are all established by professional engineering standards. Professional bodies or committees develop and enforce measures to guide proper engineering practices, including mandatory requirements for all engineering professionals.

Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR)

Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR), sometimes known as “tertiary recovery,” is a method of extracting oil that has not yet been recovered using primary or secondary methods.

 

See Article for more information on EOR Technologies.

 

Fabrication

Fabrication is cutting, modifying, and assembling materials to create structures, and it’s a value-added process that involves making machines, parts, and structures out of a variety of basic materials.

Feasibility Study

A feasibility study is an engineering study that considers present and future technological trends, financial constraints, and long-term risk analysis. Engineers can estimate the project’s cost, duration, and risk using these.

Front End Engineering Design (FEED)

Basic Engineering, often known as FEED (Front End Engineering Design), is carried out after the Conceptual design or Feasibility Study has been completed. Various studies are conducted at this stage before the commencement of EPC (Engineering, Procurement, and Construction) to determine technical challenges and estimate rough investment costs.

Gas Processing

Natural-gas processing is a set of industrial processes for purifying raw natural gas and producing pipeline-quality dry natural gas by eliminating pollutants, contaminants, and higher molecular mass hydrocarbons. The processing of natural gas begins right at the wellhead.

Heat Recovery Steam Generator (HRSG)

A Heat Recovery Steam Generator (HRSG) is an essential component of a gas turbine combined cycle power plant with high thermal efficiency and low CO2 emissions. An HRSG is a heat exchanger that recovers a large amount of heat from a gas turbine’s exhaust gases.

Heavy Oil

Under typical reservoir conditions, heavy crude oil cannot easily flow from production wells due to its viscosity. It’s called “heavy” because it has a higher density or specific gravity than light crude oil. Any liquid petroleum with an API gravity less than 20° is classified as heavy crude oil.

High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE) Pipe

High-Density Polyethylene pipe is a flexible plastic pipe that is used for the transportation of fluids and gases. It is frequently utilized to replace ageing concrete or steel main pipes. Its high impermeability and strong molecular bond make it suited for high-pressure pipelines, and it is made from thermoplastic High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE).

Infrastructure

Infrastructure that includes engineering works such as transportation, water, electricity, communications, and waste management is considered engineering infrastructure.

 

Lease Automatic Custody Transfer (LACT) Unit

What is a LACT Unit, exactly? The resources are separated following initial drilling and production, and oil is usually transferred from an upstream producer to a midstream oil and gas operator for storage or transportation. Lease Automatic Custody Transfer (LACT) is an acronym for Lease Automatic Custody Transfer.

 

 

Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG)

Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is a combustible mixture of hydrocarbon gases, including propane, butane, and propylene. On the other hand, the latter two usually make up less than 5% of the total, and LPG is a petroleum-based gas.

Natural Gas Liquids (NGL)

Natural gas liquids, commonly known as natural gas condensate, is a low-density mixture of hydrocarbon liquids found as gaseous components in raw natural gas produced from various natural gas sites.

 

Oil Refining

Petroleum is processed and refined into usable products such as gasoline, diesel fuel, asphalt base, fuel oils, heating oil, kerosene, liquefied petroleum gas, and petroleum naphtha in an oil refinery or petroleum refinery.

 

Organic Rankin Cycle (ORC)

An Organic Rankin Cycle (ORC) unit is an electric and thermal power generating system based on a closed-loop thermodynamic cycle that is particularly well suited to distributed generation.

Petrochemicals

Petrochemicals are a vast collection of compounds generated from natural gas and petroleum and utilized for various chemical functions, many of which are critical in modern civilization.

 

Pipe and Instrumentation Diagram (P&ID)

In engineering, a pipe and instrumentation diagram depicts the piping and process equipment and the instrumentation and control devices for a facility.

 

Pipelines

A pipeline is a series of pipes, a canal, or another means of transporting something from one location to another. A pipeline is a system of pipes that transports natural gas from an oil drilling site to a processing facility.

Procurement

Procurement encompasses all activities related to getting the commodities and services a business requires to run its day-to-day operations, including sourcing, negotiating terms, purchasing items, receiving and inspecting goods as needed and keeping track of the entire process.

Power Generation

All power generation systems and power processing plants work by turning energy into electricity, available in various forms.

Project Management

Project management entails a set of operations aimed at achieving specific objectives. It necessitates capable project management, human resources, communication/collaboration, and the ability to balance the forces that influence a project’s scope, schedule, cost, and quality.

Project Controls

A set of processes used to understand and influence the amount of time or money spent on a project is known as project controls. Each project control focuses on a particular aspect of the project plan, such as the schedule, resources, or hazards.

Regulatory Support

Regulatory Support means helping respond to data requests or other information requests from governmental bodies or third parties in regulatory matters, helping prepare testimony, and helping prepare filings in regulatory proceedings.

Shale Oil and Gas Facilities

Shale is a fine-grained sedimentary rock that is easily split into thin, parallel layers and develops from the compaction of silt and clay-size mineral particles. Organic material in black shale can generate oil and natural gas, and the rendered oil and natural gas can be trapped within its pores.

Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD)

SAGD is a technique for producing heavy crude oil and bitumen using enhanced oil recovery. A pair of horizontal wells are driven into the oil reservoir, one a few metres above the other, in an advanced type of steam stimulation. To heat the oil and reduce its viscosity, high-pressure steam is continually injected into the upper wellbore, forcing the heated oil to drain into the lower wellbore, where it is pumped out.

Triethylene Glycol (TEG)

Using Triethylene Glycol (TEG), a gas dehydration system removes water vapour from newly recovered natural gas. To remove water from a stream of natural gas passing through it, this drying device uses liquid triethylene glycol as a dehydrating agent.

Water Treatment

Water treatment is known as any technique that enhances water quality to make it suitable for a specific end-use. Drinking water, industrial water supply, irrigation, river flow maintenance, water enjoyment, and various other applications are possible and properly returned to the environment.