crude oil

en-noun

crude oil (usually uncountable, plural crude oils)

Further west, in Pembrokeshire, the Esso Petroleum Co. refinery at Milford Haven, opened last November, is designed to berth the world's largest tankers and to process, initially, 4,500,000 tons of crude oil a year.

1961 August, “New traffic flows in South Wales”, in Trains Illustrated, page 494:

Unrefined oil; as it is found underground, consisting mainly of hydrocarbons.


natural gas

natural gas (countable and uncountable, plural natural gases)

formed from natural + gas, as opposed to coal gas (19th Century).

For a good many years, beginning in London, Brighton & South Coast days, the station at Heathfield, between Tunbridge Wells and Eastbourne, was lighted by natural gas. The use of this illuminant was discontinued about 1934.

1946 July and August, “The Why and The Wherefore: Natural Gas at Heathfield”, in Railway Magazine, page 263:

Natural gas is an odorless, colorless gas from inside the Earth. When burned, it provides abundant heat to homes and businesses around the United States and the world.

2010, Kelly Swanson, Human Geography, page 169:

A mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons associated with petroleum deposits; mostly methane with smaller amounts of ethane, propane and butane; principally used as a fuel.


gas

gas (countable and uncountable, plural gases or gasses)

New York City, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Baltimore

(uncountable, Canada, US, New Zealand) Gasoline, a light derivative of petroleum used as fuel.


kerosene

kerosene (countable and uncountable, plural kerosenes)

→ Assamese: কেৰাচিন (kerasin)

→ Bengali: কেরোসিন (kerōśin)

→ Farefare: karẽnzĩn

→ Moore: karenzĩ

desctree

→ Russian: кероси́н (kerosín)
→ Armenian: կերոսին (kerosin)
→ Ingrian: karassi
→ Kazakh: керосин (kerosin)
→ Yakut: кыраһыын (kırahıın)

From Ancient Greek κηρός (kērós, “wax”) + -ene; a name trademarked in 1854.

affix

The kerosene lasted all winter, so the furnace kept us always warm.

The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania.[…]It was used to make kerosene, the main fuel for artificial lighting after overfishing led to a shortage of whale blubber. Other liquids produced in the refining process, too unstable or smoky for lamplight, were burned or dumped.

2013 August 3, “Yesterday’s fuel”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847:

A thin, often colorless or blue or straw-colored petroleum-based fuel, heavier than gasoline/petrol or naptha but lighter than diesel, used primarily as jet fuel but also for heating and lighting in some remote or impoverished areas.


diesel

en-noun

diesel (countable and uncountable, plural diesels)

From German Diesel, named after inventor Rudolf Diesel, who developed a heavy-duty engine in Germany (1892–1897) and perfected it throughout his life.

A fuel derived from petroleum (or other oils) but heavier than gasoline/petrol. Used to power diesel engines which burn this fuel using the heat produced when air is compressed.


charcoal

charcoal (usually uncountable, plural charcoals)

/ˈtʃɑː.kəʊl/

From Middle English charcole, from charren (“to change, turn”) + cole (“coal”), from Old English cierran (“to change, turn”) + col (“coal”); equivalent to char (Etymology 3 (verb)) + coal.

The grate was laid with charcoal, to that she put a light, and then, as if she had forgotten something, hurried to the library, and carefully locked the door. First returning to see that the fire had kindled, she then went to the window, which, with the first gleam of moonlight, she cautiously unclosed, and stepped into the shrubbery.

1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, pages 325–326:

But through the oligopoly, charcoal fuel proliferated throughout London's trades and industries. By the 1200s, brewers and bakers, tilemakers, glassblowers, pottery producers, and a range of other craftsmen all became hour-to-hour consumers of charcoal.

2006, Edwin Black, chapter 2, in Internal Combustion:

destructive distillation
destructive distillation

(countable, uncountable) impure carbon obtained by destructive distillation of wood or other organic matter, that is, heating it in the absence of oxygen.


lead

lead (countable and uncountable, plural leads)

lead Electrolytically refined pure lead (canonical)
leads (plural)

From Middle English led, leed, from Old English lēad (“lead”), from Proto-West Germanic *laud (“lead”), borrowed from Proto-Celtic *ɸloudom, from Proto-Indo-European *plewd- (“to flow”).
Cognate with Scots leid, lede (“lead”), North Frisian lud, luad (“lead”), West Frisian lead (“lead”), Dutch lood (“lead”), German Lot (“solder, plummet, sounding line”), Swedish lod (“lead”), Icelandic lóð (“a plumb, weight”), Irish luaidhe (“lead”) Latin plumbum (“lead”), Finnish luoti (“bullet”). Doublet of loth. More at flow.
* (graphite in a pencil): Graphite was once believed to be a form of lead; see black lead and plumbago.

cog

(countable) A thin cylinder of graphite used in pencils.


oil

en-noun

oil (countable and uncountable, plural oils)

From Middle English oyle, oile (“olive oil”), borrowed from Anglo-Norman olie, from Latin oleum (“oil, olive oil”), from Ancient Greek ἔλαιον (élaion, “olive oil”), from ἐλαία (elaía, “olive”). Compare Proto-Slavic *lojь. More at olive. Doublet of oleum. Supplanted Middle English ele (“oil”), from Old English ele (“oil”), also from Latin.

der

The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania. The first barrels of crude fetched $18 (around $450 at today’s prices). It was used to make kerosene, the main fuel for artificial lighting after overfishing led to a shortage of whale blubber.


string

en-noun

string (countable and uncountable, plural strings)

Tok Pisin: string

→ Dutch: string

→ Finnish: stringit

→ French: string

→ German: String

desc

מחרוז//מַחְרֹזֶת

→ Hebrew: מחרוז／מַחְרֹזֶת (makhrózet) (semantic loan)

→ Japanese: ストリング (sutoringu)

→ Norwegian Bokmål: streng (semantic loan)

→ Norwegian Nynorsk: streng (semantic loan)

→ Polish: stringi

→ Portuguese: estrém; string

→ Swedish: string

From Middle English string, streng, strynge, from Old English strenġ, from Proto-West Germanic *strangi, from Proto-Germanic *strangiz (“string”), from Proto-Indo-European *strengʰ- (“rope, cord, strand; to tighten”).
Cognate with Scots string (“string”), Dutch streng (“cord, strand”), Low German strenge (“strand, cord, rope”), German Strang (“strand, cord, rope”), Danish streng (“string”), Swedish sträng (“string, cord, wire”), Icelandic strengur (“string”), Latvian stringt (“to be tight, wither”), Latin stringō (“I tighten”), Ancient Greek στραγγαλόομαι (strangalóomai, “to strangle”), from στραγγάλη (strangálē, “halter”), Ancient Greek στραγγός (strangós, “tied together, entangled, twisted”).

cog

στραγγαλόομαι

弦

any similar long, thin and flexible object

弓弦

ゆづる, yuzuru, ゆみづる, yumizuru, ゆんづる, yunzuru

(oil industry) A column of drill pipe that transmits drilling fluid (via the mud pumps) and torque (via the kelly drive or top drive) to the drill bit.


cut

en-noun

cut (countable and uncountable, plural cuts)

From Middle English cutten, kitten, kytten, ketten (“to cut”) (compare Scots kut, kit (“to cut”)), of North Germanic origin, from Old Norse *kytja, *kutta, from Proto-Germanic *kutjaną, *kuttaną (“to cut”), of uncertain origin, perhaps related to Proto-Germanic *kwetwą (“meat, flesh”) (compare Old Norse kvett (“meat”)). Akin to Middle Swedish kotta (“to cut or carve with a knife”) (compare dialectal Swedish kåta, kuta (“to cut or chip with a knife”), Swedish kuta, kytti (“a knife”)), Norwegian Bokmål kutte (“to cut”), Norwegian Nynorsk kutte (“to cut”), Icelandic kuta (“to cut with a knife”), Old Norse kuti (“small knife”), Norwegian kyttel, kytel, kjutul (“pointed slip of wood used to strip bark”). Displaced native Middle English snithen (from Old English snīþan; compare German schneiden), which still survives in some dialects as snithe or snead. See snide. Adjective sense of "drunk" (now rare and now usually used in the originally jocular derivative form of half-cut) dates from the 17th century, from cut in the leg, to have cut your leg, euphemism for being very drunk.

leikkaus

notch, passage, or channel made by cutting or digging

(petrochemistry) The range of temperatures used to distill a particular mixture of hydrocarbons from crude oil.


stab

en-verb

stab (third-person singular simple present stabs, present participle stabbing, simple past and past participle stabbed)

stabs (present singular third-person)
stabbing (participle present)
stabbed (participle past)
stabbed (past)

First attested in Scottish English (compare Scots stob, stobbe, stabb (“a pointed stick or stake; a thrust with a pointed weapon”)), from Middle English stabbe (“a stab”), probably a variant of Middle English stob, stub, stubbe (“pointed stick, stake, thorn, stub, stump”), from Old Norse stobbi, stubbi, cognate with Old English stybb. Cognate with Middle Dutch stobbe.
Supposed by some to derive from Scottish Gaelic stob (“to prick, to prod, to push, to thrust”); supposed by others to be from a Scots word.

der

[O]ne of the derrickman's jobs is to "stab" the pipe.

2005, Paul Carter, Don't Tell Mum I Work on the Rigs, Crows Nest, NSW: Allen and Unwin, page 57:

(transitive, oil industry) To guide the end of a pipe into a coupling when making up a connection.


wildcat

From Middle English wyld cat, wylde cat (in the plural as wild cattes, wylde catis, wyle cattes), equivalent to wild + cat. Cognate with Middle Low German wiltkatte, German Wildkatze, Swedish vildkatt.
Its adjectival senses were originally American and derived from the "wildcat banks" of Michigan, following its elevation to statehood in 1837. Two laws—one easing the requirements for establishing a new bank and another occasioned by the Panic of 1837 that removed the need for payment in specie—led to the creation and collapse of around 50 banks within two years. The term is apocryphally derived from a wildcat supposedly featured on the currency printed by one of these banks, but more probably derived from the remote locations "where the wildcats roamed" chosen by these banks to avoid oversight and minimize redemption of notes.

John Audubon
bobcat
wildcat
wildcat (disambiguation)
wildcat cartridge

(usually derogatory) Of or concerning businesses operating outside standard or legitimate practice, especially:

(oil industry) Of or concerning oil exploration in new areas, (particularly) small, independent operations.


wildcat

en-verb

wildcat (third-person singular simple present wildcats, present participle wildcatting, simple past and past participle wildcatted)

wildcats (present singular third-person)
wildcatting (participle present)
wildcatted (participle past)
wildcatted (past)

You'd have to be very rich or very desperate to go wildcatting that far east.

His pitch was that fracking had transformed the production of gas from a hit-or-miss proposition to one that operated with an on and off switch. It was manufacturing, not wildcatting.

2018 August 30, Bethany McLean, “How America's ‘most reckless’ billionaire created the fracking boom”, in The Guardian:

(oil industry) To drill for oil in an area where no oil has been found before.


dry

en-adj

dry (comparative drier or dryer, superlative driest or dryest)

drier (comparative)
dryer (comparative)
driest (superlative)
dryest (superlative)

wet

antonym(s) of “abstinent from or banning alcohol”

wet

antonym(s) of “not using afterburners or water injection”

wet

of a scientist or lab: doing computation

Sranan Tongo: drei

[d̠͡ɹ̠˔ʷaɪ̯]

Adjective and noun from Middle English drye, dryge, drüȝe, from Old English drȳġe (“dry; parched, withered”), from Proto-West Germanic *drūgī, *draugī, from Proto-Germanic *drūgiz, *draugiz (“dry, hard”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰerǵʰ- (“to strengthen; become hard”), from *dʰer- (“to hold, support”). The verb derives from Middle English drien, from Old English drȳġan (“to dry”), from Proto-West Germanic *drūgijan, from Proto-Germanic *drūgiz (“hard, desiccated, dry”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰerǵʰ- (“strong, hard, solid”).
cognates and related terms
 Cognate with Scots dry, drey (“dry”), North Frisian drüg, driig, Saterland Frisian druuch (“dry”), West Frisian droech (“dry”), Dutch droog (“dry”), Low German dröög (“dry”), German dröge (“dull”), Icelandic draugur (“a dry log”). Related also to German trocken (“dry”), West Frisian drege (“long-lasting”), Danish drøj (“tough”), Swedish dryg (“lasting, hard”), Icelandic drjúgur (“ample, long”), Latin firmus (“strong, firm, stable, durable”). See also drought, drain, dree.

cog

you don't miss the water till the well runs dry

you never miss the water till the well runs dry

you never miss the water until the well runs dry

This well is as dry as that cow.

Unable to produce a liquid, as water, (petrochemistry) oil, or (agriculture) milk.


coal

en-noun

coal (countable and uncountable, plural coals)

→ Hausa: kwal

From Middle English cole, from Old English col, from Proto-West Germanic *kol, from Proto-Germanic *kulą (compare West Frisian koal, Dutch kool, German Kohle, Danish kul), from *ǵwelH- (“to burn, shine”). Compare Old Irish gúal (“coal”), Lithuanian žvìlti (“to twinkle, glow”), Persian زغال (zoğâl, “live coal”), Sanskrit ज्वल् (jval, “to burn, glow”), Tocharian B śoliye (“hearth”), all from the same root.


coal

en-verb

coal (third-person singular simple present coals, present participle coaling, simple past and past participle coaled)

coals (present singular third-person)
coaling (participle present)
coaled (participle past)
coaled (past)

Char-coal of roots, coaled into great pieces.

(transitive) To burn to charcoal; to char.


coke

→ Portuguese: coque

Perhaps from Middle English coke, colk (“core”), from Old English *colc (“hole, well”), from Proto-West Germanic *kolk, from Proto-Germanic *kulukaz (“a hollow, depression”), from Proto-Indo-European *g(ʷ)el- (“to swallow, devour; gullet”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Kolk (“maelstrom, depression, whirlpool”), West Frisian kolk (“maelstrom, whirlpool”), Dutch kolk (“maelstrom, vortex, whirlpool”), German Kolk (“pothole”).

cog

The plant should produce approximately 550,000 tons of screened blast furnace coke per year.

At Ho-pi (Hopi) in northern Honan two modern shafts were under construction in 1957-8; but the coal from Ho-pi is expected to be of rather poor quality and so will be mixed with rich coal from P'ing-ting-shan (Pingtingshan) in central Honan for coke making.

1963, “The Coal Industry in Mainland China Since 1949”, in The Geographical Journal, volume 129, number 3, →ISSN, →JSTOR, →OCLC, page 333:

(uncountable) Solid residue from roasting coal in a coke oven; used principally as a fuel and in the production of steel and formerly as a domestic fuel.


coke

en-verb

coke (third-person singular simple present cokes, present participle coking, simple past and past participle coked)

cokes (present singular third-person)
coking (participle present)
coked (participle past)
coked (past)

In kerolox engines, some of the fuel flow cokes in the engine's cooling passages over time, requiring thorough cleaning prior to reuse.

(especially automotive, astronautics) To add deleterious carbon deposits as a byproduct of combustion.


coke

1909, from the name of the American company Coca-Cola and the beverage it produced; the drink was named for two of its original ingredients, coca leaves and cola nut.

(uncountable, informal) Alternative letter-case form of Coke (cola-based soft drink, especially Coca-Cola).

Coke

(countable, informal) Alternative letter-case form of Coke (a serving of cola-based soft drink, especially Coca-Cola).

Coke

(US, chiefly Southern US, New Mexico, informal) Alternative letter-case form of Coke (any soft drink, regardless of type).


petroleum

en-noun

petroleum (countable and uncountable, plural petroleums or petrolea)

From Medieval Latin petroleum, from petra (“rock”) + oleum (“oil”).

petroleum-based products

Coal and petroleum do not occur hap-hazard in nature, but the aggregate occurrence of each product in any region forms a definite, limited horizon, which, in its continuance, is independent of the bedding plane.

1940, William Plotts, Isogeotherm, Or Monist Theory of Stratified Mineral Occurrence and Origin, page 7:

A flammable liquid ranging in color from clear to very dark brown and black, consisting mainly of hydrocarbons, occurring naturally in deposits under the Earth's surface.


carbon

carbon (countable and uncountable, plural carbons)

→ Bengali: কার্বন (karbon)

→ Malay: karbon

→ Navajo: káábin

→ Welsh: carbon

Borrowed from French carbone, coined by Antoine Lavoisier, from Latin carbō, carbōnem (“charcoal, coal”), from Proto-Indo-European *kerh₃- (“to burn”).

der

Carbon is the most common element in our bodies—indeed, in all living things on earth.

2006, Michael Pollan, The Omnivore's Dilemma, The Penguin Press, →ISBN, page 20:

(uncountable) The chemical element (symbol C) with an atomic number of 6. It can be found in pure form for example as graphite, a black, shiny and very soft material, or diamond, a colourless, transparent, crystalline solid and the hardest known material.

A fossil fuel that is made of impure carbon such as coal or charcoal.

carbon bike frame

carbon fiber (reinforced polymer)
carbon fiber#English

(informal) Ellipsis of carbon fiber (reinforced polymer).


carbon

en-verb

carbon (third-person singular simple present carbons, present participle carboning, simple past and past participle carboned)

carbons (present singular third-person)
carboning (participle present)
carboned (participle past)
carboned (past)

When I send it, I’ll carbon Julia so she’s aware.

(Internet, transitive, uncommon) To cause (someone) to receive a carbon copy of an email message.


peat

en-noun

peat (countable and uncountable, plural peats)

Late Middle English, from British Vulgar Latin peta, probably ultimately from a Celtic language such as an unattested Pictish or Brythonic source, in turn possibly from Proto-Brythonic *peθ (“portion, segment, piece”).

der

Soil formed of dead but not fully decayed plants found in bog areas, often burned as fuel.


Christmas tree

Wellheads, which support downhole tubing, casing, and other components, are connected at the top of wells to Christmas trees, which control production rates and fluid flows out of the well and may also direct fluids and equipment into the well

2011, Robert Heidersbach, Metallurgy and Corrosion Control in Oil and Gas Production, →ISBN, page 232:

(oil industry jargon) The collection of valves sometimes found at the top of a working oil well.


gasoline

en-noun

gasoline (usually uncountable, plural gasolines)

→ Japanese: ガソリン (gasorin)

→ Korean: 가솔린 (gasollin)

desctree

→ Spanish: gasolina
→ Bikol Central: gasolina
→ Cebuano: gasolina
→ Hiligaynon: gasolina
→ Tagalog: gasolina
→ Zoogocho Zapotec: gasolin

→ Wu: 隑斯林／𬮿斯林 (⁶ge-sy-lin)

From Cazeline (possibly influenced by Gazeline, the name of an Irish copy), a brand of petroleum-derived lighting oil, from the surname of the man who first marketed it in 1862, John Cassell, and the suffix –eline. The name Cassell is from Anglo-Norman castel (cognate of English castle), from Old French castel, from Latin castellum, diminutive of castrum. The suffix -eline is from Ancient Greek ἔλαιον (élaion, “oil, olive oil”), from ἐλαία (elaía, “olive”). Gasolene is found from 1863, and gasoline from 1864.

der

[…] naphtha of specific gravity exceeding eighty degrees […] and of the kind usually known as gasoline, shall be subject to a tax of five per centum ad valorem.

1864, Congress of the United States, Internal Revenue Act §94:

So you punched out a window for ventilation. Was that before or after you noticed you were standing in a lake of gasoline?

Localities across New Jersey imposed curfews to prevent looting. In Monmouth, Ocean and other counties, people waited for hours for gasoline at the few stations that had electricity. Supermarket shelves were stripped bare.

2012 October 31, David M. Halbfinger, “New Jersey Continues to Cope with Hurricane Sandy”, in New York Times, retrieved 2012-10-31:

(uncountable, Canada, US, Philippines) A flammable liquid consisting of a mixture of refined petroleum hydrocarbons, mainly used as a motor fuel; petrol.


petrol

en-noun

petrol (usually uncountable, plural petrols)

→ Afrikaans: petrol

→ Tibetan: པེ་ཊོལ (pe ṭol)

From French (essence de) pétrole, from Medieval Latin petroleum, from Ancient Greek πετρέλαιον (petrélaion, “oil of the rock”), from πέτρα (pétra, “stone, rock”)+ ἔλαιον (élaion, “olive oil, any oily substance”).

der

1987 October 29, Advertisement, New Scientist, page 31,
We were the first company to introduce unleaded petrol in Britain, opening our first pump in June 1986.

2000 September 27, Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the 106th Congress, Second Session, Volume 146, Part 14, page 19605,
European oil firms are beginning to follow the example of their American counterparts by adding convenience stores to their pumps: the typical American petrol station now makes some 40 percent of its profits from the sale of non-oil products, such as cigarettes and beer.

2003, S. Srinivasan, Automotive Mechanics, Tata McGraw Hill, India, 2nd Edition, page 149,
At a crank angle 6° before the TDC, the electric spark ignites the petrol mixture.

He also admitted that when big trucks bring in petrol, they park along Langata Road[…].

2006 February 10, Kenya Gazette, page 354:

2006 August, Economic Scenario, Pratiyogita Darpan, page 218,
The increase in rates comes just a few days after India raised petrol prices by 9-2% and diesel prices by 6-6% which boosed inflation expectations in Indian economy.

2008, Robin Stonecash, Joshua Gans, Stephen King, Gregory Mankiw, Principles of Macroeconomics, Cengage Learning Australia, page 122,
Most major Australian cities receive their petrol from a single refinery.

(Commonwealth, excluding Canada) A fluid consisting of a mixture of refined petroleum hydrocarbons, primarily consisting of octane, commonly used as a motor fuel.


carbon monoxide

carbon monoxide poisoning

(inorganic chemistry) A colorless, odorless, flammable, highly toxic gas.

കാർബൺ മോണോക്സൈഡ്

kāṟbaṇ mōṇōksaiḍŭ


parrot

First attested in 1525. From Middle French perrot, either a diminutive of Pierre or a shortened form of perroquet (whence also parakeet). Compare French pierrot and Occitan parrat. A number of origins have been suggested for perroquet, such as Spanish periquito and Italian parrocchetto. The relationship between these various words is disputed. Replaced earlier popinjay.


tender

en-adj

tender (comparative tenderer, superlative tenderest)

tenderer (comparative)
tenderest (superlative)

From Middle English tender, tendere, from Anglo-Norman tender, Old French tendre, from Latin tener, tenerum (“soft, delicate”).

[…]poore Lord, is't I
That chaſe thee from thy Countrie, and expoſe
Thoſe tender limbes of thine[…]

c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:

Be careful: that area is tender.

2006, Shrek, spoken by Shrek (Mike Myers):


tender

en-adv

tender (comparative more tender, superlative most tender)

more tender (comparative)
most tender (superlative)

From Middle English tender, tendur, tendir, tendre, from the adjective (see above).

Love me tender, love me sweet
Never let me go

1956, Ken Darb (lyrics and music), “Love Me Tender”, performed by Elvis Presley:


smut

en-noun

smut (countable and uncountable, plural smuts)

From Middle English smutten (“to defile, debase”), related to German Schmutz (“filth, dirt, smut”) and schmutzen (“to make dirty, stain”). Doublet of schmutz.
Compare also Old English smitta (“smear; blot; mark; stain; pollution”), Old English besmītan (“to besmut; defile; dirty; pollute; contaminate”).

cog

She reached it soon after half-past two. She found its gloomy nineteenth-century façade, black with the smuts of ninety years, a little daunting, and mounted its broad steps in some trepidation. But she rang the bell hard and knocked firmly.

1915, Edgar Jepson, “The Reluctant Duke”, in Happy Pollyooly: The Rich Little Poor Girl, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 135:

“You can rely on me!” Varya said, still more earnestly and enthusiastically, still leaning heavily on the counter, noticing briefly and forgetting at once that her bare elbow had crushed a stray smut from the Primus mender's booth.

1989, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, translated by Harry Willetts, August 1914, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →ISBN, page 56:

“Do I have a smut on my nose, Mr. Donovan? You've been staring at me for a full minute. It's most disconcerting, you know.”

2012, Kasey Michaels, A Masquerade in the Moonlight:

He does not stand upon decency […] but will talk smut, though a priest and his mother be in the room.

1711 June 5 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “FRIDAY, May 25, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 39; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume I, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC:

(uncountable) Obscene language; ribaldry; obscenity.

Any of a range of fungi, mostly Ustilaginomycetes, that cause plant disease in grasses, including cereal crops; the disease so caused.

(mining) Bad, soft coal containing earthy matter, found in the immediate locality of faults.


avail

en-noun

avail (countable and uncountable, plural avails)

From Middle English availen (“to be of use”), from Old French a (“to”) + vail from valoir (“to be worth”), from Latin valere (“to be worthy, strong”).

Total crude oil avails (production plus purchases) of even highly "self-sufficient" refiners are far greater than their reported refinery inputs.

1967, Interstate Compact on Oil and Gas (10th Extension), page 95:

(oil industry) A readily available stock of oil.


gas station

(Canada, US, New Zealand, Philippines) filling station / petrol station; an establishment which sells gasoline (petrol) and often also diesel

pompstasie

an establishment which sells gasoline to pump directly into a car


collier

From Middle English colier, from col (“coal”).

By 1830, more than two million tons of coal a year, principally from the North East, arrived in London by coastal collier, and that figure reached three million tons by the 1840s.

2021 December 1, Nigel Harris, “St Pancras and King's Cross: 1947”, in RAIL, number 945, page 42:

(nautical) A vessel carrying a bulk cargo of coal.


alkene

(organic chemistry) An unsaturated, aliphatic hydrocarbon with one or more carbon–carbon double bonds.

alquè

unsaturated aliphatic hydrocarbon with one or more carbon–carbon double bonds

オレフィン系炭化水素

オレフィンけいたんかすいそ

エチレン系炭化水素

エチレンけいたんかすいそ


alkane

From German Alkan, formed as alkyl + -ane.

The carbon chain of an alkane may be linear or branched, but must not contain loops (cycles); its chemical formula is of the form CₙH₂ₙ₊₂.

Whereas production levels of short-chain alkanes in plants are insufficient to provide an economically viable fuel source, the genes encoding the alkane biosynthetic pathway may provide a biotechnological resource for engineering fermentation organisms with the capacity to convert biomass to an alkane-based fuel.

1997, T. J. Savage, M. K. Hristova, R. Croteau, “Biochemistry of Short-Chain Alkanes: Evidence for an Elongation/Reduction/C1-Elimination Pathway”, in John Peter Williams, Mobashsher Uddin Khan, Nora Wan Lem, editors, Physiology, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of Plant Lipids, Kluwer Academic Publishers, page 51:

The oxidation of the simplest alkane methanol is carried out by methylotrophs that may be obligate or facultative.

2007, Alasdair H. Neilson, Ann-Sofie Allard, Environmental Degradation and Transformation of Organic Chemicals, Taylor & Francis (CRC Press), page 103:

2012, Chulsung Bae, Chapter 3: Catalytic Carbon-Boron Bond Formation via Activation of Alkane C-H Bonds, Pedro J. Pérez, Alkane C-H Activation by Single-Site Metal Catalysis, Springer, page 73,
Alkanes are extremely unreactive toward nucleophiles and electrophiles because they are composed of nonpolar, strong, saturated C–H and C-C bonds.

(organic chemistry) Any acyclic saturated hydrocarbon (methane, ethane, etc.).

alcà

acyclic saturated hydrocarbon of formula CnH2n+2


cannel

cannel (countable and uncountable, plural cannels)

Cannel is dull black in colour while boghead is dull brownish.

2018, O. P. Gupta, Elements of Fuel & Combustion Technology, page 35:

A bituminous coal that burns brightly with much smoke.


duff

duff (countable and uncountable, plural duffs)

Uncertain; probably related to Proto-Indo-European *dʰewbʰ- (“to whisk, smoke, darken, obscure”).

der

Coal dust, especially that left after screening or combined with other small, unsaleable bits of coal.


ganger

From Middle English ganger, from Old English gangere (“a ganger, footman”), equivalent to gang + -er. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Gunger, West Frisian gonger, Dutch ganger, German Gänger, Danish gjænger, ganger, Swedish gängare, Icelandic gangari.

inh

(nautical) A length of chain, one end of which is fastened to an anchor when let go, when the other end is fastened to a hawser.


octane

(organic chemistry) Any of the eighteen isomeric aliphatic hydrocarbons (C₈H₁₈) found in petroleum, especially an iso-octane 2,2,4 trimethyl-pentane; they are used as fuels and solvents.


carbonization

en-noun

carbonization (countable and uncountable, plural carbonizations)

The disadvantage of the underfired grill is the potential for flareups, which can cause a burned spot or carbonization. Not only do these taste bad, but they are also carcinogenic.

2009, Peter Osbaldeston, The Palm Springs Diner's Bible: A Restaurant Guide for Palm Springs, Cathedral City, Rancho Mirage, Palm Desert, Indian Wells, la Quinta, Bermuda Dunes, Indio, and Desert Hot Springs, Gretna, La.: Pelican Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 250:


distillation

distillation (countable and uncountable, plural distillations)

/dɪstɪˈlæɪʃən/

From Middle English distillacioun, from Anglo-Norman distillacioun, from Latin distīllātiōnem, accusative of distīllātiō.

chemical engineering
chemical engineering

(chemistry, chemical engineering) The separation of more volatile parts of a substance from less volatile ones by evaporation and condensation.

(petrochemistry) Separation of petroleum into specific hydrocarbon groups; fractionation.


slack

slack (countable and uncountable, plural slacks)

From Middle English slak, from Old English slæc (“slack”), from Proto-Germanic *slakaz. For sense of coal dust, compare slag.

the slack of a rope or of a sail

take in the slack

(uncountable) The part of anything that hangs loose, having no strain upon it.


slack

slack dried hops


slack

Probably from German Schlacke (“dross, slag”). Doublet of slag.

One of the important improvements of recent years has been attained by mixing the peat pulp as it passes through the grinding machine, with other inflammable materials, such as bituminous coal dust, or slack […]

1905, Colliery Engineer, volume 25, page 107:

It had rather a woolly and uneven beat and was inclined to prime, but there was no trouble with steaming even though the tender contained mostly small slack and dust.

1959 April, P. Ransome-Wallis, “The Southern in Trouble on the Kent Coast”, in Trains Illustrated, London: Ian Allan Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 220:


black lung

Thousands of miners have given their lives and their health. They've got black lung, they can't work. The Pittston company is trying to cut off their health benefits by various means. That's what the strike is about.

1989 December 3, Pam Mitchell, Ronnie Gilbert, “Carrying On The Honorable Tradition Of 'Protest Music'”, in Gay Community News, volume 17, number 21, page 9:

(pathology) A chronic disease of the lungs caused by the long-term inhalation of coal dust.


hydrocarbon

Chofen is an unusually small hydrogen-helium gas giant, with traces of sulphur and hydrocarbons in the atmosphere. The Alliance surveyor ship Ibn Battuta provided inconclusive evidence of hydrocarbon life in the atmosphere (over 1000 meters below the cloud tops), where pressure compresses Chofen's hydrogen into a liquid state.

2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Chofen planetary description:

(organic chemistry) A compound consisting only of carbon and hydrogen atoms.


organic chemistry

(chemistry) The chemistry of organic compounds (that is, chemical compounds with carbon atoms in a covalent bond).

química orgánica

chemistry of carbon containing compounds


carbonate

From French carbonate. Equivalent of carbon + -ate (“suffix used for salts of acids ending in -ic”).


alkyne

(organic chemistry) A hydrocarbon containing at least one carbon–carbon triple bond.

ألكاين

hydrocarbon containing at least one carbon-carbon triple bond

アセチレン系炭化水素

アセチレンけいたんかすいそ


OPEC

Yes there are analogs in Dune of today’s events—corruption and bribery in the highest places, whole police forces lost to organized crime, regulatory agencies taken over by the people they are supposed to regulate. The scarce water of Dune is an exact analog of oil scarcity. CHOAM is OPEC.

1980 July, Frank Herbert, “Dune Genesis”, in Omni, volume 2, number 10, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 74, column 1:

It was obvious that, if Opec was going to survive much longer, it had to be taken seriously by the world’s major oil companies. So Yamani decided, if the mountain won’t come to Muhammad, Opec had somehow to impose its presence on the oil companies.

1988, Jeffrey Robinson, “The Birth of Opec and the Rise of Yamani”, in Yamani: The Inside Story (Biography/History), New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, published 1989, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 54:

w:Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries

Acronym of Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.


carbon black

(petrochemistry) A fine black powder of amorphous carbon manufactured by the incomplete combustion of natural gas or oil, and used as a pigment in the manufacture of ink and paint. Used as a filler in rubber like polymers and rubber. It helps the polymers resist deterioration by ultraviolet rays.


soot

en-noun

soot (usually uncountable, plural soots)

From Middle English soot, soote, sote, sot, from Old English sōt, from Proto-Germanic *sōtą (“soot”), from Proto-Indo-European *sed- (“to sit”). Cognate with dated Dutch zoet (“soot”), German Low German Soot (“soot”), Danish sod (“soot”), Swedish sot (“soot”), Icelandic sót (“soot”). Compare similar ō-grade formation the same Proto-Indo-European root in Old Irish suide (“soot”) and Balto-Slavic: Lithuanian súodžiai (“soot”), and Proto-Slavic *saďa (“soot”) (Russian са́жа (sáža), Polish and Slovak sadza, Bulgarian са́жда (sážda)).

Fine black or dull brown particles of amorphous carbon and tar, produced by the incomplete combustion of coal, oil etc.


bunker

→ Catalan: búnquer

desctree

→ German: Bunker
→ Polish: bunkier
→ Romanian: buncăr

The origin of the noun is uncertain; the earliest sense is sense 6.1 (“box or chest, the lid of which serves as a seat”), from Scots bunker (“bench; pew; window-seat; sand pit (especially in golf); coal receptacle; sleeping berth, bunk”), from Early Scots bunker, bunkur, bonker (“a chest or box, often serving as a seat”), probably from Old Norse bunki (“a heap”) (probably whence bunk (“sleeping berth in a ship, train, etc.”)), from Proto-Germanic *bunkô (“a heap, pile; a bump, lump, a crowd”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *bʰenǵʰ- (“thick”) or *bʰeg- (“to billow, swell; to arch, bend, curve (?)”). Compare Middle Low German bunge (“drum, container”), Middle High German bunge (“drum”). Sense 1 (“hardened shelter designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks”) was derived from German Bunker during World War II, which was itself from bunker (“large bin or container for storing coal”) (sense 5).
The verb is derived from the noun.

cog

(nautical) A compartment for storing coal for the ship's boilers; or a tank for storing fuel oil for the ship's engines.

bunker

container for storing coal or fuel oil for a ship’s engine

Among tank engines, the 0-6-2 wheel arrangement was by far the most numerous, there being nearly 450 of this arrangement, which offers the advantage of good power and adhesive weight, coupled with adequate tank and bunker capacity, within a limited compass.

1939 September, D. S. Barrie, “The Railways of South Wales”, in The Railway Magazine, Westminster, London: IPC Transport Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 161:

The bunkers of these engines hold enough coal for one round journey of 120½ miles, and water is taken in each direction at Hexham.

1941 December, “Notes and News: A Tank Engine's 241-mile Day”, in Railway Magazine, page 569:

(rail transport) The coal compartment on a tank engine.


bunker

en-verb

bunker (third-person singular simple present bunkers, present participle bunkering, simple past and past participle bunkered)

bunkers (present singular third-person)
bunkering (participle present)
bunkered (participle past)
bunkered (past)

попадам в пясъчника

to hit (a golf ball) into a bunker; to place (a golfer) in the position of having a golf ball in a bunker

(transitive) To load (a vessel) with coal or fuel oil for the engine.

товаря въглища

to load (a vessel) with coal or fuel oil for the engine

(intransitive, of a vessel) To take a load of coal or fuel oil for its engine.


polyethylene

en-noun

polyethylene (countable and uncountable, plural polyethylenes)

The most abundant chemical in the plastics is polyethylene, which is used for single-use packaging, plastic bags and containers such as bottles.

2023 June 5, Yvonne Gordon, “Microplastics found in every sample of water taken during Ocean Race”, in The Guardian:

(organic chemistry) A polymer consisting of many ethylene monomers bonded together; used for kitchenware, containers etc.


CHONPS

(mnemonic) Initialism of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur: the main elements that occur naturally in carbon-based living systems on Earth.


oil refinery

An industrial process plant where crude oil is processed and refined into useful petroleum products


filling station

filling station (plural filling stations)

Here and there, under the porches of ruined filling stations, in the gaping doorways of office buildings, lie heaps of human bones.

1948 August, Aldous Huxley, Ape and Essence, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, →OCLC:

A facility which sells fuel and lubricants for motor vehicles.


petroleum jelly

petroleum jelly (plural petroleum jellies)

A pale yellow semisolid mixture of hydrocarbons obtained from petroleum; used in lubricants and ointments.


carbon dioxide

/ˌkɑːbən dʌɪˈɒksʌɪd/

Coordinate term: carbon monoxide

There were dozens of presentations in 2008, including: […

2008 December 9, Jeff Jacoby, “Skepticism on climate change”, in The International Herald Tribune, →ISSN:

Oxygen levels on Earth skyrocketed 2.4 billion years ago, when cyanobacteria evolved photosynthesis: the ability to convert water and carbon dioxide into carbohydrates and waste oxygen using solar energy.

2013 September–October, Katie L. Burke, “In the News”, in American Scientist, archived from the original on 2013-09-03:

(inorganic chemistry) The normal oxide of carbon, CO₂; a colorless, odorless gas formed during respiration and combustion and consumed by plants during photosynthesis.


kickback

kickback (countable and uncountable, plural kickbacks)

(oil industry) A dangerous buildup of gas pressure at the wellhead.


paraffin

paraffin (countable and uncountable, plural paraffins)

From Latin paraffinum, from parum (too little) + affinis (related, affinity). Therefore low affinity or being chemically neutral.

She poured paraffin on the dry floors and on the pandanus-mats, and then she set fire.

1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, “chapter 57”, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC:

(UK, Ireland) A petroleum-based thin and colourless fuel oil.

(petrochemistry, organic chemistry) Any member of the alkane hydrocarbons.


fulleride

After Buckminster Fuller, inventor of the geodesic dome, + -ide.

(chemistry) a fullerene doped with a metal atom; some of them exhibit superconductivity


fossil fuel

Coordinate term: renewable

Without renewables, we’ll still end up burning (albeit much more efficiently) the same coal and natural gas that we burn today in our power plants and the same fuel oil that we burn in our cars and trucks. And it is precisely these carbon-based fossil fuels that we must distance ourselves from if we really want to come to grips with our dependence on foreign oil and with global warming.

2006 October 11, Robert B. Semple Jr., “Beyond Fossil Fuels”, in New York Times:

The basic point is that we are entering uncharted territory. This toothless statement has been true at every point in history. But I believe that this century is the one in which we must confront the thorniest issue ever presented to the human race. This moment is special because we have dramatically built up our population, technology, science, medicine, and democratic institutions as a direct result of vast amounts of surplus energy stemming from a one-time resource. The fossil fuel experience has made us dangerously confident about our cleverness and dominance over nature. What makes this century special, then, is that we will have to cope with a diminishing supply rate of the resource that has been of paramount importance to our high-tech existence.

2011 October 5, Tom Murphy, “"Sustainable" Means Bunkty to Me”, in Do the Math:

Any fuel derived from hydrocarbon deposits such as coal, petroleum, natural gas and, to some extent, peat; these fuels are non-renewable, and their burning moves carbon from underground into the atmosphere via the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.

biofuel

likewise from biologic origins, but recent and renewable


flare

→ Italian: flare

Origin unknown, first recorded in the mid 16th century, probably related to Latin flagrō (“I burn”). Norwegian flara (“to blaze; to flaunt in gaudy attire”) has a similar meaning, but the English word predates it. Possibly related to Middle High German vlederen (“to flutter”), represented by modern German flattern.
The noun is derived from the verb.

unknown

Origin unknown

Stulp

widening of an object with otherwise roughly constant width

разкрояване

widening of the lower legs of trousers and jeans

Flare stacks are used in gas plants, petroleum refineries, and petrochemical plants to combust surplus hydrocarbons to produce combustion products that are neither toxic nor combustible. Flares frequently incorporate a liquid-gas separator at the base of the stack and steam assisted burner nozzles at the top of the stack to aid complete combustion.

2013, David Brennan, “Identification of Waste in Utility Systems”, in Sustainable Process Engineering: Concepts, Strategies, Evaluation, and Implementation, Singapore: Pan Stanford Publishing, →ISBN, part B (Strategies), section 6.8 (Flare Stacks), page 122:

A source of brightly burning light or intense heat.

(oil industry) A flame produced by a burn-off of waste gas (flare gas) from a flare tower (or flare stack), typically at an oil refinery.


coal tar

en-noun

coal tar (countable and uncountable, plural coal tars)

Coordinate term: coal oil

Phenol can be obtained from coal tars by two methods : (a) Directly by separation of the product contained in this type of feedstock, at the rate of 0.5 to 1.5 per cent weight.

1989, Alain Chauvel, Gilles Lefebvre, Petrochemical Processes: Major Oxygenated, Chlorinated And Nitrated Derivatives, page 123:

A black, viscous tar made by the destructive distillation of coal (to make coke and town gas); it contains a great number of compounds including hydrocarbons and phenols; used in the preparation of medicinal soap and shampoo, and industrially for the manufacture of many products.


town gas

Any of several flammable gases sold and distributed by a municipal gasworks for lighting and heating in a town, including coal gas or water gas.


lignite

lignite (countable and uncountable, plural lignites)

From French lignite, from Latin lignum (“firewood”) + -ite.

Texas industry is turning to lignite, a kind of poor man's coal, to replace its dwindling allocations of natural gas. The Lone Star State now gets an estimated 12 percent of its electricity from lignite, and that figure is expected to double by 1985.

1978 February 14, “Texas Turning to Its Reserves of Lignite”, in New York Times:

[Robert] Habeck, who has found himself in the extremely uncomfortable position of turning from a long-term campaigner against fossil fuels to a short-term defender of them, said: “Putin’s war of aggression is forcing us to temporarily make greater use of lignite so that we save gas in electricity generation. This is painful but necessary in view of the shortage of gas.”

2023 January 10, Kate Connolly, “Climate activists ‘prepared to risk lives’ to stop German coalmine”, in The Guardian:


carboniferous

en-adj

carboniferous (comparative more carboniferous, superlative most carboniferous)

more carboniferous (comparative)
most carboniferous (superlative)

(chemistry) Containing or producing carbon.


atomic mass unit

en-noun

atomic mass unit (plural atomic mass units)

(physical chemistry) A unit of mass equal to 1/12 the mass of an atom of ¹²C (carbon-12, an isotope of carbon).

原子質量單位

a unit of mass equal to 1/12 the mass of an atom of the 12C isotope of carbon


tetraethyl lead

tetraethyl lead (usually uncountable, plural tetraethyl leads)

(organic chemistry) A toxic organometallic compound, (C₂H₅)₄Pb, added to petroleum/gasoline as an antiknock agent.


PTT

PTT (countable and uncountable, plural PTTs)

Partitioning tracer test
w:Tracer use in the oil industry

(oil industry) Initialism of Partitioning tracer test.


octane number

A measure of the antiknock properties of an automobile fuel; isooctane having an octane number of 100, a fuel with the same antiknock properties as a mixture of 90% isooctane and 10% heptane having an octane number of 90.


acid rain

acid rain (countable and uncountable, plural acid rains)

Coined in 1872 by Scottish chemist Robert Angus Smith.

Acid rain forms when water in the atmosphere condenses on particles containing acid-forming pollutants, such as sulfate produced by the burning of fossil fuels and nitrogen oxides from automobile exhausts.

1987 January 20, “Airborne Pollutants”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Rain which is unusually acidic (pH of less than the natural range of 5 to 6); caused mainly by atmospheric pollution with sulphur dioxide, carbon dioxide and nitrogen compounds.


LNG

liquefied natural gas
liquefied natural gas#English

(petrochemistry) Initialism of liquefied natural gas.


upstream

en-adj

upstream (comparative farther or further upstream, superlative farthest or furthest upstream)

farther (comparative)
further upstream (comparative)
farthest (superlative)
furthest upstream (superlative)

en:figuratively, of oil moving through the oil industry

(figurative) Occurring earlier than something else; (also, usually, especially) being an influence on something else; causing a consequence for something else.

(oil industry) Involving exploration and pre-production rather than refining and selling.


bituminous

bituminous (comparative more bituminous, superlative most bituminous)

more bituminous (comparative)
most bituminous (superlative)


bituminous

en-noun

bituminous (countable and uncountable, plural bituminouses)

(countable) A type or grade of bituminous coal.


bitumen

bitumen (countable and uncountable, plural bitumina or bitumens)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Mélange a trois-bitumen.wav

From Middle English bithumen, bitumen, from Latin bitūmen. Doublet of bitume.

You need to excavate and remove the topsoil, line the subsoil with a geotextile, then lay and compact hardcore. Follow this with a layer of compacted "hoggin" – compacted clay, gravel and sand. This is then sprayed with hot bitumen, and has a layer of pea shingle rolled into it.

2014 August 24, Jeff Howell, “Home improvements: gravel paths and cutting heating bills [print version: Cold comfort in technology, 23 August 2014, p. P5]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Property):

A sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum, burning with a bright flame. It occurs as an abundant natural product in many places, as on the shores of the Dead and Caspian Seas. It is used in cements, in the construction of pavements, etc.; Mineral pitch.


CDU

(petrochemistry) Initialism of crude distillation unit.


catenation

catenation (countable and uncountable, plural catenations)

(chemistry) The ability of a few elements, most especially carbon, to yield chains and rings by forming covalent bonds with atoms of the same element.


catalytic converter

catalytic converter (plural catalytic converters)

(automotive) A chamber containing a finely divided platinum catalyst in which carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons from vehicle exhaust are oxidized to carbon dioxide.

محول حفزي

chamber in which carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons from vehicle exhaust are oxidized into carbon dioxide


petrochemistry

(petrochemistry) The branch of chemistry that deals with petroleum, natural gas and their derivatives.

нефтохимия

the branch of chemistry that deals with petroleum


petrochemical

(petrochemistry) Any compound derived from petroleum or natural gas.

peitriceimiceán

any compound derived from petroleum or natural gas


casing

(oil industry) A metal pipe used to line the borehole of a well.


destructive distillation

destructive distillation (countable and uncountable, plural destructive distillations)

(organic chemistry, physical chemistry) The heating of a material, such as coal or wood, in an inert atmosphere, at a high temperature such as to cause decomposition; the principal products include oils and tars from which many useful organic compounds may be obtained; town gas and coke were obtained in this way.


By swapping out less efficient federal vehicles for new hybrid and fuel efficient ones, this strategy will reduce gasoline consumption by 1.3 million gallons per year and prevent 26 million pounds of CO₂ from entering the atmosphere.

2009 April 9, Office of the Press Secretary, “President Obama Announces Accelerated Purchase of 17,600 New American Vehicles for Government Fleet”, in White House, archived from the original on 2010-03-10:


VDL

(oil industry) Initialism of variable density log.


cracking

(organic chemistry, petrochemistry) The thermal decomposition of a substance, especially that of crude petroleum in order to produce petrol / gasoline.


dry ice

A genericised trademark of the DryIce Corporation of America.

Carbon dioxide frozen in the solid state, used especially as a cooling agent and for the production of fog-like special effects. It sublimes at −78.5 °C (−109.3 °F) at normal atmospheric pressure.

izotz lehor

carbon dioxide frozen in the solid state


colliery

From the hillock a score of red paths diverged as black ones do from a colliery, one of them leading to the homestead itself […]

1938, Xavier Herbert, “Chapter VII”, in Capricornia, page 91:

(British) An underground coal mine, together with its surface buildings.


aza

"However, aza N-atoms (~N=) have to be counted, if they replace methine groups in the chain."

2003, Heinrich Zollinger, Color Chemistry, →ISBN, page 73:

(organic chemistry, attributive) A nitrogen atom substituted for a carbon atom within a ring.


avgas

avgas (countable and uncountable, plural avgases or avgasses)

Cylinder cracks are nothing new, however, and there is no reason to expect autogas-burning engines to have a higher incidence of head cracking than avgas-users

1988, Kas Thomas, Fuel and oil systems: basic and advanced light plane maintenance:

In the area of autogas volatility, a Reid vapor pressure of 9.0 to 15 is very common, compared to the vapor pressure of avgas, which is 5.5 to 7

1994, Michael J. Kroes with Thomas W. Wild, Aircraft powerplants:

Autogas can be obtained for a fraction of the cost of avgas, but its use is not without controversy.

2006, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, The AOPA pilot: voice of general aviation, volume 49:

(aviation) Gasoline fuel for piston-engined aircraft.


carbo-

carbide, carbohydrate

(inorganic chemistry, organic chemistry) Representing carbon, carbonic, carbonyl, carbonylic, carboxyl or carboxylic.


jewellery

jewellery (usually uncountable, plural jewelleries)

From Middle English juelrye, from Old French juelerye, equivalent to jewel + -ery.

The rig simply retrieves the old pipe and runs a new pipe back in the hole (the completion string). Any special items on the string other than the pipe itself are referred to as "jewellery". These can be any number of things, from down-hole motors to mandrels and radioactive sources for survey purposes.

2005, Paul Carter, Don't Tell Mum I Work on the Rigs, Crows Nest: Allen and Unwin, page 44:

(oil industry, informal) Any tools, instruments, devices, etc., placed within a drill pipe.


back-to-back

"He's been standing-by in town for the last week, talk to his back-to-back on the rig in the morning." ("Back-to-back" is the man on the rig who does your job when you're not there.

2005, Paul Carter, Don't Tell Mum I Work on the Rigs, Crows Nest: Allen and Unwin, page 101:

(oil industry) One of a pair of rig workers who are rostered on alternately.


carbide

(chemistry) Any binary compound of carbon and a more electropositive element

carbur

any binary compound of carbon and a more electropositive element


silicon carbide

silicon carbide (plural silicon carbides)

(chemistry) A binary compound of silicon and carbon, SiC; it is one of the hardest known materials, and is used as an abrasive, under the trade name Carborundum, and as a refractory material.


naphtha

naphtha (countable and uncountable, plural naphthas)

→ Japanese: ナフサ (nafusa)

→ Korean: 나프타 (napeuta)

From Latin naphtha, from Ancient Greek νάφθα (náphtha, “naphtha”), from Old Persian *naftah, probably borrowed or assimilated from Akkadian 𒉌𒆳𒊏 (/napṭu/, “petroleum”) , from the verb 𒈾𒁀𒂅 (na-ba-ṭu /napâṭu, nabâṭu/, “to be(come) bright, to shine; to flare up, to blaze”). The Greek mediation is reflected in the spelling – ‘ph’ and ‘th’ (from ‘φ’ and ‘θ’).

der

The turmoil went on—no rest, no peace. […] It was nearly eleven o'clock now, and he strolled out again. In the little fair created by the costers' barrows the evening only seemed beginning; and the naphtha flares made one's eyes ache, the men's voices grated harshly, and the girls' faces saddened one.

1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter VII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

No, this is not a disentanglement from, but a progressive knotting into — they go in under archways, secret entrances of rotted concrete that only looked like loops of an underpass... certain trestles of blackened wood have moved slowly by overhead, and the smells begun of coal from days far to the past, smells of naphtha winters, of Sundays when no traffic came through...

1973, Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow:

The Common Room and the Library were lit by anbaric light, but the Scholars preferred the older, softer naphtha lamps in the Retiring Room.

(petrochemistry) Any of a wide variety of aliphatic or aromatic liquid hydrocarbon mixtures distilled from petroleum or coal tar, especially as used in solvents or petrol.


toolpusher

The senior worker in charge of an oil drilling rig.


gasohol

en-noun

gasohol (countable and uncountable, plural gasohols)

gasoline mixed with ethyl alcohol (ethanol).


shale oil

shale oil (countable and uncountable, plural shale oils)

Up in the mountains along both sides of Parachute Creek the Exxon Corporation and other companies have begun to pour billions of dollars into two huge projects to turn the nation's immense reserves of oil shale into shale oil.

1981 November 6, Robert D. Hershey Jr, “Shale Oil Is Coming Of Age”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

A synthetic crude oil obtained by the pyrolysis, hydrogenation, or thermal dissolution of oil shale.

A crude oil obtained from low permeability petroleum-bearing formations (shales).


oil shale

oil shale (usually uncountable, plural oil shales)

Can you imagine squeezing oil from rock? Oil shale is different from the shale gas that is extracted through fracking. It is geologically un-evolved oil: the remnants of organic matter buried underground for millions of years but never sunk deep enough, nor long enough, to be transformed into petroleum.

2014 April 16, Martin Lukacs, “Canada becoming launch-pad of a global tar sands and oil shale frenzy”, in The Guardian:

A sedimentary rock containing kerogen from which petroleum-like shale oil can be produced by pyrolysis, hydrogenation, or thermal dissolution.

olieskifer

shale from which hydrocarbons can be produced


petrol station

(UK, Ireland, Australia, South Africa, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong) A filling station, gas station; a facility selling fuel for road motor vehicles


carbon fiber

“Anyone in our industry interested in the state of the art has to look at carbon fiber,” he said, adding that composite bikes could be common in three to five years. “Not only is it strong, and light, but you can position the fibers any way you want, to absorb all the stress you normally find in a bike.”

1987 June 21, Lawrence M. Fisher, quoting Mr. Kutrumbus, “Shifting Out of Steel, Into Carbon Fiber”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

One problem, though: with prices above $8 a pound for midgrade carbon fiber, the material costs about 20 times as much as the steel it replaces.

2004 February 9, Tim Moran, “Carbon Fiber: Light but Costly”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

en:composite material made with filaments of carbon or carbonized matter

Ellipsis of carbon fiber reinforced polymer/plastic, a type of strong and lightweight composite material, especially epoxied composite laminate.

carbon fiber reinforced polymer/plastic

polimero rinforzato con fibra di carbonio


radiocarbon dating

radiocarbon dating (usually uncountable, plural radiocarbon datings)

(physics, archaeology, paleontology) A method of estimating the age of an artifact or biological vestige based on the relative amounts of the different isotopes of carbon present in a sample.


kerogen

any organic matter present in a sedimentary rock that is insoluble in organic solvents; the precursor of oil and natural gas


motor oil

motor oil (countable and uncountable, plural motor oils)

internal-combustion engine
internal-combustion engine

Oil for lubricating an internal-combustion engine.

機油

oil to lubricate an internal-combustion engine


diamondoid

(organic chemistry) Any of several polycyclic hydrocarbons whose cagelike structure resembles part of the diamond crystal lattice.


mousehole

From Middle English mosse hole, mowse hole; equivalent to mouse + hole.

(oil industry, drilling) The storage area on a drilling rig where the next joint of drilling pipe is held until needed.

oil industry; drilling; oil industry; drilling


bridged carbocation

bridged carbocation (plural bridged carbocations)

(organic chemistry) Any carbenium ion in which the positive charge is distributed among two or more carbon atoms, and the structure is best represented by one in which a hydrogen atom, or hydrocarbon residue, bridges these carbon atoms.


carbonium ion

(organic chemistry) a carbenium ion or any carbocation


carbenium ion

(physical chemistry) any carbocation containing a tervalent carbon atom


carbocation

Any cation containing an excess positive charge on one or more carbon atoms


cumulene

(organic chemistry) Any hydrocarbon (or derivative) having three or more cumulative double bonds; e.g., R₂C=C=C=CR₂.


carbanion

(organic chemistry) any organic anion of general formula R₃C⁻


carbyne

The trivalent radical R-C⋮ or any of its hydrocarbyl derivatives.


uphole

calculations made uphole

The shale bed is uphole from the limestone reservoir.

(oil industry) Within the wellbore, towards the top of the hole.


carbon burning

(physics, astronomy) the nucleosynthesis process, in stars of greater than 8 solar mass that have exhausted their helium supply, in which carbon is converted to neon, sodium, magnesium and other elements


CNO cycle

carbon-nitrogen-oxygen cycle
carbon-nitrogen-oxygen cycle


tar sand

tar sand (countable and uncountable, plural tar sands)


carbon-nitrogen-oxygen cycle

(physics, astronomy) A group of nuclear reactions, that involve the interaction of protons with carbon, nitrogen and oxygen nuclei, thought to be the main source of energy in main-sequence stars of greater than 1.4 solar mass.

ciclo del carbonio-azoto

a group of nuclear reactions thought to be the main source of energy in main-sequence stars of greater than 1.4 solar mass


oil sand

oil sand (countable and uncountable, plural oil sands)

A relatively loose sandstone, or porous carbonate rock, impregnated with bitumen.

tjæresand

relatively loose sandstone or porous carbonate rock impregnated with bitumen


reformer

Deisohexanizer bottoms are routed to the continuous reformer, where the octane of the stream is upgraded chiefly by conversion of naphthenes and paraffins to high octane aromatic compounds.

1979 December 5, Alaska Petrochemical Company, United States Environmental Protection Agency, Draft[:] Environmental Impact Statement, page 29:

(petrochemistry) A device used to convert petroleum refinery naphthas, typically having low octane ratings, into high-octane liquid products called reformates.


carbonize

en-verb

carbonize (third-person singular simple present carbonizes, present participle carbonizing, simple past and past participle carbonized)

carbonizes (present singular third-person)
carbonizing (participle present)
carbonized (participle past)
carbonized (past)

(chemistry) To react something with carbon.


carbinyl

(obsolete, physical chemistry) carbenium ion


(physics) the less common of the two stable isotopes of carbon, ¹³₆C, having six protons and seven neutrons


(physics) a radioactive isotopes of carbon, ¹⁴₆C, having six protons and eight neutrons; it is used in radiocarbon dating


(physics) The most abundant of the two stable isotopes of carbon, ¹²₆C, having six protons and six neutrons; it is the standard for atomic weight and is used to define the mole.


carbon cycle

The physical cycle of carbon through the Earth’s biosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere that includes such processes as photosynthesis, decomposition, respiration and carbonification.


carbon debt

the overuse, by an individual or state, of the carbon dioxide absorption capacity of the world's oceans, vegetation and soil


carbonometer

(obsolete, inorganic chemistry, physical chemistry) An early device for measuring the concentration of carbon dioxide in a gas, by bubbling it through limewater and measuring the cloudiness.


carbon dating

en-noun

carbon dating (countable and uncountable, plural carbon datings)


limewater

limewater (countable and uncountable, plural limewaters)

(inorganic chemistry) a solution of calcium hydroxide in water, used as a simple test for carbon dioxide, and in skin preparations.


carbonaceous

en-adj

carbonaceous (comparative more carbonaceous, superlative most carbonaceous)

more carbonaceous (comparative)
most carbonaceous (superlative)

Of, relating to, rich in, or yielding carbon, or a compound of carbon.

carbónúil

of, relating to, rich in, or yielding carbon


Avogadro's number

Named after Italian physicist Amedeo Avogadro (1776–1856).

named-after

(physical chemistry) The number of elementary entities (atoms or molecules) comprising one mole of a given substance, being precisely 6.02214076 × 10²³. Formerly defined as the number of atoms present in 12 grams of isotopically pure carbon-12.

ثَابِت أَفُوجَادْرُو

number of atoms or molecules in 1 mole of some substance


downhole

In the work over, part of the new "string" was a down-hole titanium gauge.

Pressure readings are taken downhole next to the feed zone and the total flow is measured on the surface using a separator.

2015, Ronald DiPippo, Geothermal Power Plants:

(oil industry) Located in the drilled bore of an oil well either underground or undersea.


mineral oil

en-noun

mineral oil (countable and uncountable, plural mineral oils)

Any mixture of aliphatic and alicyclic hydrocarbons derived from petroleum used for very many applications, but not as a fuel.

E905a when used as an anti-foaming agent


anthracite

anthracite (countable and uncountable, plural anthracites)

/ˈænθɹəˌsaɪt/

From Latin, from Ancient Greek ἀνθρακῖτις (anthrakîtis, “a kind of coal”), from ἄνθραξ (ánthrax, “charcoal”). By surface analysis, anthrac- + -ite.

uder

A form of carbonized ancient plants; the hardest and cleanest-burning of all the coals.


syngas

en-noun

syngas (countable and uncountable, plural syngases)

(petrochemistry) Synthesis gas or coal gas.


synthesis gas

synthesis gas (countable and uncountable, plural synthesis gases)

(petrochemistry) The gas obtained by heating coal and steam; coal gas.


coal gas

(petrochemistry) The poisonous gas, used domestically for cooking etc and formerly for lighting, prepared by heating coal with steam (gasification); it is a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide; sometimes synonymous with synthesis gas or town gas.


peak oil

Or more worrying, that after many years of false alarms, the world is truly beginning to run out of oil? That last question is at the center of a fierce debate. Adherents of the “peak oil” theory warn of a permanent oil shortage.

2004 April 4, Daniel Yergin, “Imagining a $7-a-Gallon Future”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Another consequence of reaching "peak oil" is the debate it will surely provoke in the United States over whether we should avert the coming crisis by drilling in pristine lands and waters long considered off limits or by engaging in conservation and development of alternative fuel sources.

2005 September 4, Carrie Abels Brattleboro, “The Breaking Point”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

In this view the 21st-century poison is peak oil theory, the idea that the world has reached its maximum oil production or soon will, and that we are entering a period when escalating energy costs will make the suburban lifestyle untenable.

2005 March 13, Natalie Canavor, “Running on Empty”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

By the time the last guitar duo performed “Here Comes the Sun,” everyone in the room was so keyed up — so ready to turn the impending dark age of peak oil and climate change into a renaissance — that no one heard the slightest menace in the line “Little darling, I feel that ice is slowly melting.”

2009 April 16, Jon Mooallem, “The End Is Near! (Yay!)”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Peak oil hasn't happened, and it's unlikely to happen for a very long time.

2012 July 2, George Monbiot, “We were wrong on peak oil. There's enough to fry us all”, in The Guardian:

What follows from this is that the idea of peak oil has gone up in flames. We do not have too little fossil fuel, we have far too much.

2012 November 12, Damian Carrington, “IEA report reminds us peak oil idea has gone up in flames”, in the Guardian:


carbon footprint

carbon footprint (plural carbon footprints)

Popularized by a 2005 advertising campaign for fossil-fuel company BP in order to shift blame for climate change onto individual consumers. Modelled after the ecological footprint concept developed in the 1990s.

Coordinate term: ecological footprint

House insulation is another way of reducing energy consumption and carbon footprint, as well as double glazing and draught-proofing.

1994, Peter Simmons, Petrol to Gas: A Fully Illustrated Guide to Complete D.I.Y.Conversion for the Motorist, Password Publishing, page 14:

Usage of local products has boosted the income of local farmers, created more work opportunities and lowered carbon footprints. Previously, business owners in Jiasian competed with each other and fought over business opportunities.

2018, Lena Dominelli, editor, The Routledge Handbook of Green Social Work, Routledge, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 134:

Also true is that building HS2 will produce considerable carbon emissions. However, those emissions pale into insignificance if this claim from the business case is true: "To put HS2's carbon footprint in perspective, the estimated total carbon emissions from both building and operating Phase 1 for a full 120 years produces the same amount of carbon as just one month of the UK's road network."

2020 May 6, Philip Haigh, “Just one more stop on the long journey to HS2 fulfillment [sic]”, in Rail, page 65:

But the oil companies would like you to think that’s how it works. It turns out that the concept of the “carbon footprint”, that popular measure of personal impact, was the brainchild of an advertising firm working for BP.

2021 August 23, Rebecca Solnit, “Big oil coined ‘carbon footprints’ to blame us for their greed. Keep them on the hook”, in The Guardian:

A measure of the amount of carbon dioxide produced by a person, organization or state in a given time.

碳足印

measure of carbon dioxide produced by someone


carbon neutral

In mainstream usage since the early 2000s.

We must accelerate the switch from coal and oil to clean, carbon-neutral power. Such a shift will bring new jobs and growth.

2003 January 23, Claude Martin, “Weather in Davos : Let's now get serious about warming”, in The International Herald Tribune, →ISSN:

The hotel plans to make the property "carbon neutral" — whereby carbon emissions are offset by tree planting or other green schemes, and the hotel car runs on filtered, used vegetable oil. Or will, when the promised supply arrives.

2004 February 6, Katherine Tanko, “Luxury in an 'eco' world”, in International Herald Tribune, →ISSN:

carbon emissions trading
carbon emissions trading

Having an overall zero carbon footprint after carbon emissions trading has been taken into account.

neutre en carboni

having an overall zero carbon footprint after carbon emissions trading has been taken into account


APG

(petrochemistry) Abbreviation of Associated Petroleum Gas.


carbonation

carbonation (countable and uncountable, plural carbonations)

Coordinate term: recarbonation

Soda pop is basically sugar water with a little bit of flavoring and added carbonation.

(physical chemistry) The state of having carbon dioxide gas dissolved in a liquid; the act or process of creating that state.

Celia didn't eat at the diner anymore because she thought the carbonation in their fountain drinks was off.

The amount or level of dissolved carbon dioxide remaining in solution.

(mineralogy) The replacement of calcium hydroxide with calcium carbonate triggered by a chemical reaction.


flaring

flaring (countable and uncountable, plural flarings)

Coordinate term: venting

Separate research suggests a switch from the flaring of methane to venting may be behind some of these vast outpourings. Flaring is used to burn unwanted gas, putting CO₂ into the atmosphere, but is easy to detect and has been increasingly frowned upon in recent years.

2023 May 9, Damian Carrington, “‘Mind-boggling’ methane emissions from Turkmenistan revealed”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(oil industry) The deliberate open-air burning of natural gas that is generated as a by-product of various petrochemical processes, especially oil extraction; gas flaring.


torbanite

torbanite (countable and uncountable, plural torbanites)

From Torbane + -ite, after Torbane Hill near Bathgate in Scotland, its main location of occurrence.

A variety of coal, derived from colonial algae, that resembles carbonaceous shale.


firedamp

firedamp (usually uncountable, plural firedamps)

From fire + damp with 'damp' not in the usual sense of 'moist' but old German, modern Dutch, Danish 'damp' as steam or vapour, hence a gas liable to catch fire.

(mining) An inflammable gas (mostly methane) found in coal mines; forms an explosive mixture with air.


coal seam

Alternatively, the N.C.B. agrees to pay a percentage of the cost of any repairs or preventive work that ensues from working the coal seam.

1961 November, “Talking of Trains: The subsidence problem”, in Trains Illustrated, page 651:

(geology) A stratum of coal between strata of other rocks.

煤層

a stratum of goal between strata of other rocks


ligroin

ligroin (countable and uncountable, plural ligroins)

Uncertain, but possibly from Ancient Greek λιγυρός (ligurós, “clear”).

uder

(archaic) A petroleum fraction boiling 75°-125°C used as a solvent and fuel.


petroleum ether

A volatile petroleum fraction, usually available in a number of fractions boiling between 40°C and 140°C. Used as a solvent in the laboratory and industry.


aromatization

en-noun

aromatization (countable and uncountable, plural aromatizations)

(petrochemistry) The conversion of aliphatic components of petroleum into aromatic compounds as part of the refining process.


rock oil

rock oil (countable and uncountable, plural rock oils)

From rock + oil, a literal rendering of Latin petroleum (literally “rock oil”).


petrodollar

/ˈpɛtɹə(ʊ)ˌdɒlə/

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-petrodollar.wav

/ˈpɛtɹoʊˌdɑlɚ/

From petro- (prefix meaning ‘petroleum; oil export’) + dollar, possibly modelled after Eurodollar.

prefix

(oil industry, chiefly in the plural, also attributively) Money (either notionally or specifically in dollars or other currencies) earned from the sale of oil, often especially as considered among a national economy's principal revenue streams.

նավթադոլար

money (either notionally or specifically in dollars or other currencies) earned from the sale of oil


pumpjack

(US) The ground-based drive for a submerged pump in an oil borehole.


carbothermic

(organic chemistry, physical chemistry) carbothermal


carbothermal

(organic chemistry, physical chemistry) Using a combination of heat and carbon


carbothermal reduction

en-noun

carbothermal reduction (plural carbothermal reductions)

(organic chemistry, physical chemistry) Any reduction reaction that employs carbon at high temperatures


pencil lead

pencil lead (countable and uncountable, plural pencil leads)

The material (usually black or dark gray) which allows a pencil to work. Usually a mixture of graphite and smaller amounts of other material, but not actual lead.


cetane number

A performance rating of diesel fuel corresponding to the percentage of cetane in a mixture with isocetane (or, formerly, methylnaphthalene) that would have the same performance.


coal ball

A nodule of plant material permeated with minerals found mostly in bituminous and anthracite coal seams


OCTG

OCTG (countable and uncountable, plural OCTGs)

(oil industry) Abbreviation of Oil Country Tubular Goods.. Tubing, casing and drill pipes manufactured according to API Specification 5CT.


venting

venting (countable and uncountable, plural ventings)

Coordinate term: flaring

Separate research suggests a switch from the flaring of methane to venting may be behind some of these vast outpourings. […] Venting simply releases the invisible methane into the air unburned, which, until recent developments in satellite technology, had been hard to detect.

(oil industry) The release of unwanted gas directly into the atmosphere.


belly buster

The derrickman releases the "stabbing board", a pivoting plank like a diving board, then walks out to the very end and, wearing a safety harness called a "belly buster", leans out at a horrific angle to make sure the pipe is lined up straight.

2005, Paul Carter, Don't Tell Mum I Work on the Rigs, Crows Nest, NSW: Allen and Unwin, page 68:

(oil industry) A type of safety harness with a belt that wraps tightly around the belly.


oiler

From Middle English oyler, equivalent to oil + -er.

There were a lot of renegades down towards the Mexican line who made a raid once in a while, and a few oilers livin' near had water holes in the foothills, […]

1907, Stewart Edward White, chapter 4, in Arizona Nights:


petro-

* From Latin petra (“stone, rock”), from Ancient Greek πέτρα (pétra, “stone, rock”).
* Clipping of petroleum.


petroliferous

en-adj

petroliferous (comparative more petroliferous, superlative most petroliferous)

more petroliferous (comparative)
most petroliferous (superlative)

Oil-shales are often the last relics of a former impregnation with petroleum; they are associated with phenomena—such as the intrusive asphaltites or manjacks—common to petroliferous regions, but in many cases the parent oilfields, the sources of the former impregnation, are things of the past.

1922, Intermountain Industry and Engineering: Official Publication: Utah Motor Transport Ass'n, volume 24:

(geology, petrology, of a rock or geologic formation) Containing or yielding petroleum.


rig pig

And, of course, they can maintain control of half a dozen shit-scared rig pigs.

2005, Paul Carter, Don't Tell Mum I Work on the Rigs, She Thinks I'm a Piano Player in a Whorehouse, page 95:

"Rig pigs are welders that drive souped up pick-up trucks with all their gear in the back and they spend weeks at sites welding. […]" "[…] You should know that. You're from Alberta!"

2006, Laurie Hannan, The Gamble, page 118:

You are truly a fucking champion and thank you for bringing a smile to a rig pig's wife!

2007, Paul Carter, This Is Not a Drill: Just Another Glorious Day in the Oilfield, page 238:

(oil industry, slang) A worker on an oil rig; a roughneck.


petrol filling station

en-noun

petrol filling station (plural petrol filling stations)

(British) filling station, especially one attached to a supermarket


fuel tank

The main fuel tank is slung from the underframe midway between the two bogies, and its capacity of 420 gal. supplies both the main engine and the train heating boiler.

1950 November, “Mixed-Traffic Diesel-Electric Locomotives for Ireland”, in Railway Magazine, page 781:

A container of fuel, especially one for motor fuel inside a vehicle.


NG

NG (countable and uncountable, plural NGs)

no good: attested in The Comprehensive Standard Dictionary of the English Language (1909) and in Students’ Edition of a Standard Dictionary of the English Language (1915).

(petrochemistry) Initialism of natural gas.


reformate

(petrochemistry) The product of a hydrocarbon reforming process; an intermediate in the production of fuels such as gasoline.


coalman

A coal miner (as distinguished from other type of miners).

въглекопач

a coal miner (as distinguished from other type of miners)


treater

I don't know why I do things like that except that sometimes I think that the principal difference between the treater and the treatee is that the treater is in possession of the keys, if only in a symbolic sense […]

2014, Martin Fleishman, The Casebook of a Residential Care Psychiatrist, page 58:

A vessel used to treat oil-water emulsions by any of several mechanisms so that the oil can be accepted by the pipeline or transport.


API unit

From API (“American Petroleum Institute”).

The radioactivity of a typical shale is 100 API units.

(oil industry) A unit of radioactivity used for measuring natural gamma rays in the ground.


API gravity

API gravity (countable and uncountable, plural API gravities)

(oil industry) A specific gravity scale measuring the relative density of various petroleum liquids, expressed in degrees.

grau API

density of petroleum liquid relative to water


oil refining

The industrial process of converting crude oil into petroleum and other useful products


indane

indane (countable and uncountable, plural indanes)

(organic chemistry, petrochemistry) A bicyclic hydrocarbon consisting of a benzene ring fused to that of cyclopentane; it, and its derivatives, are found in petroleum


coal mine

A mine from which coal ore or coal minerals are mined.


blood diamond

Several certification systems already exist throughout the world. The Kimberly Process certifies the origin of rough diamonds from areas that have conflict-free diamond production. The process aims to prevent “blood diamonds.”

2011 July 11, Erin Banco, “Is Your Cell Phone Fueling Civil War in Congo?”, in The Atlantic:

A diamond that has been mined in a war zone and sold in order to finance the conflict.

bloeddiamant

1. a diamond that has been mined in a war zone and sold in order to finance the conflict


ANFO

ammonium nitrate
ammonium nitrate#English

Initialism of ammonium nitrate fuel oil: an explosive made from ammonium nitrate fertilizer and fuel oil.

硝安油剤爆薬

しょうあんゆざいばくやく


CNG

(petrochemistry) Initialism of compressed natural gas.

КПГ

комприми́рованный приро́дный газ

СПГ

сжа́тый приро́дный газ, can also mean LNG - сжи́женный приро́дный газ


heterofullerene

(organic chemistry) Any compound formally derived from a fullerene by replacing one or more carbon atom by a heteroatom


coalfield

The amount of coal despatched in the Western Region is about 24,000,000 tons a year, nearly all from South Wales, though the Region includes the Forest of Dean, N. Somerset, and part of the N. Wales coalfields.

1961 August, “New traffic flows in South Wales”, in Trains Illustrated, page 492:

Any region containing deposits of coal that may be mined.


gas tank

(US) A fuel tank for gasoline built into equipment, especially vehicles.


carbonium

(dated, deprecated) Any of several organic cations; carbocation or carbenium.


coalification

coalification (usually uncountable, plural coalifications)

(geology) The formation of coal by the gradual heating and compression of organic matter, normally via peat.


clean coal

(dated) anthracite (a cleaner burning variety of coal, which is usually hard and bluish, with fewer impurities; making it acceptable for uses needing cleaner coal)


frac

en-verb

frac (third-person singular simple present fracs, present participle fraccing, simple past and past participle fracced)

fracs (present singular third-person)
fraccing (participle present)
fracced (participle past)
fracced (past)

To date, Arrow has only fracced about 2.5 percent of its wells ...

2011, Arrow, “Fraccing”, in Arrow Energy (html), archived from the original on 2012-01-22:

hydraulic fracturing
hydraulic fracturing

(oil industry) To use hydraulic fracturing (fraccing)


frac

More than a million wells have been fracced in the United States since the first frac job six decades ago.

2012 January 3, Ralph Benko, “Daniel Yergin's The Quest”, in Forbes:

The drilling industry has generally spelled the word without a "K," using terms like "frac job" or "frac fluid."

2012 January 26, Jonathan Fahey, “No energy industry backing for the word 'fracking'”, in Yahoo News:

(oil industry) Relating to or denoting hydraulic fracturing


frac

A program summary showing the type and volume of fluid and the size and amount of sand that is planned for the eight fracs is shown in table 1.

1976, United States. Energy Research and Development Administration, Bartlesville Energy Technology Center, United States. Dept. of Energy. Division of Oil, Gas, and Shale Technology, United States. Division of Oil, Gas, Shale, and In Situ Technology, United States. Dept. of Energy. Division of Fossil Fuel Extraction, “NATURAL BUTTES UNIT, UINTAH COUNTY, UTAH, MASSIVE HYDRAULIC FRACTURING DEMONSTRATION”, in Contracts for cooperative and supporting research on enhanced oil and gas recovery and improved drilling methods, volumes 7-10:


hydraulic fracturing

(oil industry) A technique in which a mixture of water and sand is forced down an oil well (or similar) in order to create fractures in the oil-bearing rock and thus release more oil.


channel coal

When this coal is put into the fire, it crackles, and separates into laminae, as the channel coal does into irregular pieces, burns for some time with a heavy flame, becomes red-hot, and gradually consumes to light white ashes.

1772, Philosophical Transactions, page 265:

Of channel coal there has been imported into the States from England 17,767 tons, against 27,641 tons in 1871.

1873, Great Britain. Foreign Office, Reports from Her Majesty's Consuls on the Manufactures, ..., page 1256:

Between 25,000 and 30,000 bushels of channel coal were mined from three pits in Phelps and Crawford counties and hauled to the Works […]

1964, James D. Norris, Frontier Iron: The Maramec Iron Works, 1826-1876, page 112:


wireline

Most manufacturers of wirelines will construct specially designed armored electrical conductor wirelines for unique downhole operations.

2005, William C. Lyons, Gary J. Plisga, Standard Handbook of Petroleum & Natural Gas Engineering, 2nd edition, →ISBN, page 5:

(oil industry) A wire that runs from a drill rig down into the drill hole to support a dead load or other downhole tool.


carbon chauvinism

artificial intelligence
artificial intelligence

(derogatory) The doctrine that artificial intelligence cannot possibly be sentient or truly intelligent because its physical substrate is not biological, carbon-based matter.


petrostate

Under subsequent democratic regimes, as we shall see, some of these features of the petrostate were to change, while others were intensified.

1997, Fernando Coronil, The magical state: nature, money, and modernity in Venezuela:

The petrostate relies on oil as its fiscal foundation, rather than on the taxes paid by the citizens[…]

2006, Donald S Rothchild, Edmond Joseph Keller, Africa-US Relations: Strategic Encounters:

A couple of years ago, while most Canadians were out shovelling the sidewalk or sipping a coffee at Tim Hortons, the nation quietly became a petrostate.

2009, Andrew Nikiforuk, Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent:

Most delegates arriving at Cop28 will have entered the desert city of Dubai along a 12-lane highway, reeking of petrol fumes: welcome to the petrostate of the United Arab Emirates.

2023 December 1, Damian Carrington, Nina Lakhani, Oliver Milman, “Cop28 diary: expensive coffee, cheesy slogans and petrol fumes”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

A state whose wealth stems from the sale of oil.


carbon planet

Proposed as a theoretical planet by Marc Kuchner.

(astronomy) A theoretical type of terrestrial planet that could form, if protoplanetary discs are carbon-rich and oxygen-poor.


Brown HT

(organic chemistry) A brown synthetic coal tar diazo dye.


DAO

en-noun

DAO (countable and uncountable, plural DAOs)

(petrochemistry) Initialism of de-asphalted oil, a crude oil refinery process stream.


fracking

fracking (usually uncountable, plural frackings)

→ Korean: 프래킹 (peuraeking)

Still, environmentalists look to the U.S., where drilling with fracking is now a “megatrend” and where thousands of wells dot the landscape in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Colorado. They worry about higher greenhouse gas emissions compared to conventional natural gas—because of the energy used to get the gas—and water contamination.

2010 July 25, Andrew Chung, “Quebec between a rock and a hard place on gas from shale”, in Toronto Star, retrieved 2010-07-26:

There is strong resistance in much of Europe to fracking, the practice of forcing liquid and sand into wells to release trapped oil and gas. France has a ban on fracking, Germany has imposed a moratorium, and opposition has cropped up and sometimes delayed shale exploration in Eastern European countries like Romania and Poland.

2014 November 9, Stanley Reed, “Britain Plans for Future of Shale Oil and Gas Industry”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

The fracking boom has been fuelled mostly by overheated investment capital, not by cash flow.

2018 August 30, Bethany McLean, “How America's ‘most reckless’ billionaire created the fracking boom”, in The Guardian:

The criticisms were made in the wake of the government’s decision on Friday to impose a moratorium on fracking in the UK. A review published by the Oil and Gas Authority concluded it was impossible to predict the likelihood or scale of earthquakes triggered by fracking.

2019 November 3, Robin McKie, “Shale gas fracking wasted ‘millions of taxpayers’ cash’, say scientists”, in The Guardian:

Hydraulic fracturing
hydraulic fracturing


petro-dictator

Probably back-formed from petro-dictatorship.

[…] ignore the warnings while America's career politicians coddled and sun-bathed with their corrupt corporate campaign donors and the petro-dictators and monarchs[…]

2005, Peter De Krassel, Custom Maid Spin for New World Disorder:

By any reasonable standard it is a far better deal to send money to America's farmers than to various petro-dictators.

2008, Gal Luft, Breaking Oil's Monopoly in the Transportation Sector:

The U.S., the U.K. and others could point usefully to their own sometimes ruinous experiences with various African petro-dictators and diamond despots, in that not-so-distant past before we discovered our new-found attention to African democracy.

2009, Ernest J. Wilson, China's Influence In Africa:

The dictator of a country whose economy is primarily dependent upon the export of petroleum.


petro-dictatorship

The development of energy resources in an otherwise underdeveloped economy […] is often accompanied by the rise of corrupt, authoritarian regimes (Witness the petro-dictatorships of Nigeria, Libya[…])

1997, Peter Rutland, Lost Opportunities: Energy and Politics in Russia:

Internationally, what is already the world's most indebted nation is overextended on the military front, highly dependent on OPEC oil and increasingly beholden to sovereign wealth funds run by petro-dictatorships or authoritarian regimes

2009, Thomas J. Courchene, The Obama Opportunity: Agent of Change in a Time of Crisis:

A dictatorship funded by petroleum exports.


organocarbon

(organic chemistry) Describing any organic compound containing a carbon to carbon bond.


black coal

black coal (countable and uncountable, plural black coals)


metallofullerene

(chemistry) A fullerene containing an enclosed metal atom


endohedral

(chemistry) Describing a fullerene (or similar molecule) that has additional atoms, ions, or clusters enclosed within their inner spheres


carbonian

en-adj

carbonian (comparative more carbonian, superlative most carbonian)

more carbonian (comparative)
most carbonian (superlative)

(mineralogy) Describing minerals that contain carbon


carbonatian

carbonatian (comparative more carbonatian, superlative most carbonatian)

more carbonatian (comparative)
most carbonatian (superlative)

(mineralogy) Describing minerals that contain carbonate anions


coalfired

a coalfired electric power station


blowout preventer

en-noun

blowout preventer (plural blowout preventers)

(oil industry) A device that sits at the surface interface of an oil well and prevents a blowout from occurring by closing the orifice, allowing material to flow from the oil reservoir out through the shaft.


BOP

blowout preventer
blowout preventer#English

(oil industry) Initialism of blowout preventer.


junk shot

(oil industry) A method to shut off a faulty blowout preventer (BOP) by injecting the BOP with material that will clog up the innards and result in a choking off of the hole.


top kill

(oil industry) a method of closing an oil well, by pumping in drilling fluid (synthetic mud) to shut off the flow of oil, and following with concrete (cement) to plug the hole


LPG

LPG (countable and uncountable, plural LPGs)

liquefied petroleum gas
liquefied petroleum gas#English

autogas

European & Commonwealth sense; not in Canada


carbonmonoxy

(chemistry) Modified by reaction with carbon monoxide


LMRP

lower marine riser package
lower marine riser package#English

(oil industry) Initialism of lower marine riser package.


bottom kill

(oil industry) A method of closing an oil well, by drilling a relief well to the bottom of the borehole of the blown-out well and pumping in heavy drilling fluid (synthetic mud) to counteract oil pressure and staunch the flow, then filling in the orifice to the oil reservoir with concrete (cement) to seal the blow-out and the relief wells.


static kill

(oil industry) a method of closing an oil well, in which the blowout preventer has been tripped and has closed off oil flow; by pumping in drilling fluid (synthetic mud) through the blowout preventer down the borehole, to push down the artesian oil to contain the oil in its reservoir, and following with concrete (cement) to plug the hole


liquefied petroleum gas

liquefied petroleum gas (countable and uncountable, plural liquefied petroleum gases)

(petrochemistry) A mixture of propane and butane with traces of some other gases, which is kept in a liquid state at high pressure in metal bottles, and used as a source of gas for cooking, heating and as a fuel in internal combustion engines in vehicles.


coal drop

The ladies remained at the house, while the men walked to the staith on the [River] Wear, and were shown the process of unloading the wagons into the keels by means of the coal-drop.

1948 January and February, “Notes and News: Duke of Wellington's Early Railway Journey”, in Railway Magazine, page 56:

An elevated railway track designed to allow material to fall freely between the rails onto the ground beneath. It is used to rapidly unload hoppers containing coal and other bulk materials.


anticarbon

(physics, uncountable) The hypothetical antimatter equivalent of carbon.


toolie

He and the geologist went to explore in the sandy Garcia pastures. The rig builder, toolie, and driller retired to the Colonel's porch to drink.

2013, Philipp Meyer, The Son, Simon & Schuster, published 2014, page 287:

(colloquial, oil industry) A tool dresser.


mazut

mazut (usually uncountable, plural mazuts)

(petrochemistry) A heavy, low-quality fuel oil, used in generating plants and similar applications, or broken down to produce diesel.


autogas

autogas (countable and uncountable, plural autogases or autogasses)

Blend of automotive + gas (originally a trade name "Autogas", but now a common noun)

Petrol ... 20.3% more than autogas ... The results conclusively demonstrate the carbon benefits of autogas vehicles

2005, Cars of the Future: Seventeenth Report of Session 2003-04 (British House of Commons):

Autogas powers more than 10 million vehicles in over 54 countries worldwide .... In terms of air-borne emissions of the principal regulated noxious gases, autogas is among the lowest emitters of all ...

2006, Class of 2006: industry report cards on environment and social responsibility (United Nations Environment Programme. Division of Technology, Industry, and Economics ):

Autogas is the common name for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) when it is used as a fuel in internal combustion engines in vehicles.

2009, Frederic P Miller with Agnes F Vandome and John McBrewster, Autogas:

Liquefied Petroleum Gas
liquefied petroleum gas

(UK, Australia) Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG)


frack

en-verb

frack (third-person singular simple present fracks, present participle fracking, simple past and past participle fracked)

fracks (present singular third-person)
fracking (participle present)
fracked (participle past)
fracked (past)

From an abbreviated form of fracture. Also found in English hydrofracking.

Mrs. Crawley recalled driving past the Riverdale Mobile Home Park, whose residents were being forced out to make way for a facility that would withdraw water from the river to frack gas wells, in the summer of 2012 and seeing a bunch of “picketers” from “out of the area that just came in and camped up there” as part of what supporters called Occupy Riverdale.

2021 September 17, Colin Jerolmack, Tristan Spinski, “They Couldn’t Drink Their Water. And Still, They Stayed Quiet.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(oil industry, transitive, intransitive) To employ hydraulic fracturing (fracking).


liquefied natural gas

(petrochemistry) Natural gas that has been cooled and compressed to liquid form for transport and storage.


graphino

electromagnetic field
electromagnetic field

(physics) A massless charged relativistic quasiparticle that arises from the low-energy excitations in a 2D graphene sheet interacting with an electromagnetic field


capno-

From Ancient Greek καπνός (kapnós, “smoke”).


CWP

coal worker's pneumoconiosis
coal worker's pneumoconiosis#English

(uncountable) Initialism of coal worker's pneumoconiosis.


petroholic

We're a nation of petroholics, lurching around the globe like a drunk with a hand grenade staggering through a nursery, yet the cure the President offers is more smart bombs and an energy program that's nothing more than drill, burn...

1991, David Ross Brower, Work in progress:

“We’re a nice little selfish country of petroholics, and that has made us lazy,” said Frederic Hauge, president of Bellona, Norway’s largest nongovernmental environmental organization.

2008 March 22, Elisabeth Rosenthal, “Lofty Pledge to Cut Emissions Comes With Caveat in Norway”, in New York Times:

(derogatory, informal) One who uses more petrol than necessary.


petrodiesel

en-noun

petrodiesel (countable and uncountable, plural petrodiesels)

Biodiesel is a technologically feasible alternative to petrodiesel, but nowadays biodiesel costs 1.5 to 3 times more than fossil diesel in developed countries.

2007, Ayhan Demirbas, Biodiesel: A Realistic Fuel Alternative for Diesel Engines, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 197:

Biodiesel these days is selling at about the same prices as petrodiesel, or even a little more in many places.

2008 May 18, Jim Norman, “Fuel From Plants, Not Oil Wells”, in New York Times:

(retronym) Diesel derived from petroleum (contrasted with biodiesel).