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Oil, Gas & Mining vocabulary · Production & Offshore

Reservoir

Meaning in oil, gas & mining, with examples

/ˈrezərvwɑːr/nounCore term

In oil, gas & mining, reservoir means: A layer of porous rock deep underground that holds oil or gas in the tiny spaces between its grains, with rock above it that stops the fluids escaping.

In Turkish: rezervuar, rezervuar kaya, hazne kaya

How it is used

Central to geology and production work: reservoir engineers model how fluids move and how much can be produced. Common phrases are reservoir pressure, reservoir rock, reservoir quality and reservoir simulation.

Example sentences

  1. Reservoir pressure has dropped by 15 percent since production started.

  2. The limestone reservoir is about 40 metres thick and has good porosity.

Common collocations

  • reservoir pressure
  • reservoir rock
  • reservoir engineer
  • reservoir simulation
  • porosityThe share of a rock's volume made up of empty spaces (pores) that can hold oil, gas or water, usually given as a percentage.
  • permeabilityHow easily fluids can flow through a rock, which depends on how well its pores are connected. It is measured in darcies or millidarcies (mD).
  • hydrocarbonA chemical compound made only of hydrogen and carbon. Crude oil and natural gas are mixtures of hydrocarbons, so the word often means oil and gas in general.
  • enhanced oil recovery (EOR)Methods used to get more oil out of a mature field than natural pressure and water injection can, for example by injecting CO2, steam or chemicals into the reservoir.

More terms: Production & Offshore

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