Baker Hughes - Investor Relations

OnTrak™ MWD System - This fully integrated system offers a full suite of directional control, formation evaluation services along with pressure and dynamics monitoring in the shortest possible BHA. The integrated design provides increased reliability, fewer connections to deal with at the rig site and optimizes sensor to bit spacing to compliment directional control with critical real-time data collection.

Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) block – a unit of defined area for purposes of management of offshore petroleum exploration and production by the Minerals Management Service (MMS) of the US Department of Interior.

Packer – open and cased-hole devices used to create seals to control fluid flow.

PDC drill bits – use fixed position polycrystalline diamond compact cutters that shear the formation instead of grinding it. In many applications, PDC bits offer higher penetration rates and longer life than Tricone bits.

Perforate – to open holes through casing walls and cement into a formation so that fluids can flow into the borehole, or vice-versa.

Perforating gun – a device fitted with shaped charges or bullets that is lowered to a desired depth in a well and fired to create penetrating holes in casing, cement, and formation.

Permeability – a measure of the ease with which a fluid can pass through the pore spaces of a formation. Learn More.

Phase – in reference to multiphase flows, the phase refers to oil, water, or gas (for three-phase flow), or liquid and gas, or oil and water (for two-phase flow).

Pick – select an event on a seismic record.

Pipeline Management - Verify the integrity and improve the deliverability of your pipeline network with Direct Assessment Pipeline Inspection and Pipeline Cleaning Services from Baker Hughes PMG.

Polymer – a substance containing large molecules formed from smaller molecules in repeating structural units. In the oilfield, various polymers are used to thicken drilling fluids, fracturing fluids, acid and other liquids. In petrochemical production, polymers are used as a feedstock for plastics.

Production Integrity Management - The systematic management of production pipeline integrity through the prediction, identification and prevention of pipeline failures occuring from corrosion and erosion.

Proppant – a granular substance that is carried into the formation by the fracturing fluid and helps keep the cracks open after a fracture treatment.

PS-wave (or converted wave) – seismic energy which has traveled partly as a P-wave and then as an S-wave; having been converted upon reflection at an interface.

P-wave – a wave in which particle motion is in the direction of source propagation. Also called compressional wave, primary wave, pressure wave, and longitudinal wave.

Rate of penetration (ROP) – the speed (rate) with which the bit drills the formation, measured in feet or meters per hour.

Raypath – a line everywhere perpendicular to wavefronts (in isotropic media).

Resistivity – a measurement of a formation’s resistance to electrical current used to determine whether the formation holds hydrocarbons or water.

Reynolds number – the dimensionless ratio of inertial forces to viscous forces in flowing fluids. It may be viewed as a ratio of the shear stress due to turbulence to the shear stress due to viscosity. Flow with a Reynolds number less than 2000-4000 is laminar flow; that with a Reynolds number greater than 2000-4000 is turbulent flow.

Rotary drilling — the method of drilling oil and gas wells in which the entire drill string is rotated from the surface to turn the drill bit, and cuttings are removed from the hole by a circulating fluid.

Rotary steerable system — a drilling system that can perform directional drilling operations without interrupting drill string rotation. Rotary steerable systems include downhole guidance systems that continually adjust the drill bit’s course. They offer significant advantages over steerable motor systems. (See AutoTrak^®)

Run in – to go into the hole with tubing, drill pipe, tools, or other devices.