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Daily Drilling Report Twenty-four hourly report indicating all important events which occurred on drilling rig.   Damage Payments Payments made to the landowner by the oil or gas operator for damages to the surface to the growing crops, to streams, or to other assets of the landowner.   Day Rate Contract An agreement between a drilling rig contractor and an operator wherein an agreed amount of money per day will be paid to the drilling contractor until a well is drilled to an agreed upon depth.   Debottlenecking Increasing production capacity of existing facilities through the modification of existing equipment to remove throughput restrictions. Generally increases capacity for a fraction of the cost of building new facilities.   Decedent A deceased person.   Declared Unit A unit formed by the lessee acting under the provision of a pooling clause in a lease or other instrument.   Decommission To remove from service.   Dedicated (Contracted) Owner Any interest owner in an oil and gas well who is a party to a contract for the sale of gas produced from that oil or gas well.   Deed A written document transferring ownership in a piece of property.   Deed of Trust A deed conveying title to a trustee made to secure a loan. Deeds of trust are widely used by banks to secure real estate loans. Threes parties are involved: (1) Grantor (the land owner-borrower), (2) Trustee (person receiving the Deed of Trust), and (3) the lending institution (beneficiary of the Deed of Trust).   Deepen To increase the distance below a specified reference datum.   Deepwater In offshore areas, water depths of greater than 600 feet.   Deferred Bonus A lease bonus payable in installments over a period of years. The deferred bonus is distinguishable from delay rentals because the deferred bonus payments are due even if the lease is dropped, whereas delay rentals are discontinued with the dropping of the lease. It is also known as an “installment bonus.”   Delay Rental Division Order A document giving instructions to the owner of a lease concerning the payment of delay rentals to persons having an interest therein.   Delay Rentals The payment made to the lessor for the privilege of continuing the lease without drilling on it. This payment is usually made annually if drilling does not take place. Failure to pay delay rentals by the anniversary date can cause the lease to terminate.   Delineation Well A well drilled just outside of the proved area of an oil gas reservoir in an attempt to extend the known boundaries of the reservoir.   Deliveries Each working interest owner pays his or her royalty owners only when the working interest owner markets his or her share of production. No out-of-pocket loss revenue is realized by the working interest owner.   Demonstrated Reserves A collective term for the sum of proved and indicated reserves.   Depletion The exhaustion of a natural resource by actual extraction of the mineral or gas, etc. The decrease in value (of mineral or gas rights, timberland, etc.) caused by production operations.   Depository Bank The bank to which payment of delay rental or other sums may be paid to the credit of lessor or his successors in interest.   Depth Limitation A specification of the depth below the surface of the ground from which production can be taken. Limitations should be shown on division orders and transfer orders. All leases or conveyances should be checked for limitations.   Derrick A frame tower that supports drilling equipment.   Derrick Man Takes care of the big pumps to circulate the mud, also works in the derrick racking pipe when tripping in or out of the hole.   Descent of Property Hereditary succession. Succession to the ownership of an estate by inheritance, or by any act of law, as distinguished from “purchase.”   Desulfurization Processes by which sulfur and sulfur compounds are removed from gases or petroleum liquid mixtures.   Detailed Survey An intensive geological and geophysical exploration of an area of interest.   Development Phase The phase in which a proven oil or gas field is brought into production by drilling production (development) wells.   Development Well A well drilled to a known producing formation in a previously discovered field, as distinguished from a wildcat, or exploratory test , and offset well.   Deviated Well A well drilled at an angle from vertical.   Devise That part of a will that leaves real property.   Devisee A person who receives property under the terms of a will.   Dewaxing Removing wax build up in well, which prevents flow or production of well.   Diagonal Furthest distance between two points on a proration unit.   Diamond Drilling Diamond tipped bits used on cable rigs for drilling very hard rock.   Diapir A mass of rock, usually salt, which has come from a slightly deeper part of the earth’s surface by piercing through overlying layers of sediment through a zone of weakness.   Diesel Fuel The light oil used in diesel and other compression-ignited engines.   Dilution of Interest See Fractionalization.   Direct Sale Contract sale of natural gas at the wellhead by a producer to an end user or local distribution company (LDC), usually for a term of a year or longer. Either the producer or purchaser pays the pipeline company for transportation, depending on the point of title transfer.   Directional Drilling Intentionally drilling a well at an angle from the vertical.   Discovery A find of significant quantities of gas or oil.   Discovery Date Date assigned to discovery of a new field.   Discovery Well Well used for disposal of saltwater into an underground formation.   Discretionary Gas Gas that can be produced or shut-in at the discretion of the operator. Generally does not include casinghead gas or gas subject to drainage.   Disposal Well A well through which salt water is pumped to subsurface reservoirs.   Dissolved Gas Natural gas mixed with crude oil in a producing formation.   Distillates The distillate or middle range of petroleum liquids produced during the processing of crude oil.   Distillation The first stage in the refining process in which crude oil is heated and unfinished petroleum products are initially separated.   Division of Interest (DOI) An instrument used to indicate the division of various owners’ interests in a particular property. The type of interest (royalty, overriding royalty, or working) is included and interest is shown in decimals and/or fractions.   Division Order A document that directs the purchaser to pay the named interest owners for oil and gas in the proportions specified in a particular well. Division orders include the name of the property, name of operator, effective date of the division order, legal description, decimal interest and type of interest. Often division orders contain other clause so see NARO information on Division Orders before signing. A division of interest can usually be submitted instead of a division order.   Division Order Title Opinion A statement of opinion by a title examiner on the state of the title to land, mineral, royalty, or working interests in a producing tract of land. This opinion, usually in letter form, is the basis of payment to all affected owners and must recite all the owners’ interests. It is generally prepared after production has been obtained in a well. Compare drill site title opinion, title opinion.   DOE U.S. Department of Energy.   Doghouse A small house on the rig floor used for keeping records, storage, etc.   Dome A roughly symmetrical upfold of the layers of rock in which the beds dip in all direction s more or less equally from a common point; any deformation characterized by local uplift and approximately circular in outline; e.g. the salt domes of Louisiana and Texas.   Domicile An individual’s permanent home or principal establishment. Residence is not necessarily the same as domicile since a person can have many addresses but has only one legal domicile, or home address to which he intends to return for prolonged periods. A business domicile is the address where the establishment is maintained or where the governing power of the enterprise is exercised. For tax purposes, it is often a principal place of business.   Doodlebugger Amateur Geologist.   Double Two lengths or joints of drill or other pipe joined together.   Downhole a term used to describe tools, equipment, and instruments used in the wellbore, or conditions or techniques applied to the wellbore.   Downhole Safety Valve A valve fitted into the production tubing of a well some distance below the surface. The valve can be closed in a emergency to stop the flow of oil and gas.   Downstream The oil industry term used to refer to all petroleum activities from the processing of refining crude oil into petroleum products to the distribution, marketing, and shipping of the products. The opposite of downstream is upstream.   Drawworks The hoisting mechanism in a drilling rig for handling the drilling tools.   Drill Bit The piece of drilling equipment that rotates to break up rock and soil.   Drill Collars Devices made of extra-heavy steel tubing mounted just above the drill bit to maintain pressure on the bit and keep the drill string in tension.   Drill Cuttings The small pieces of rock created as a drill bit moves through underground formations while drilling.   Drill Pipe Heavy, thick walled, hollow steel pipe used in rotary drilling to turn the drill bit and to provide a conduit for the drilling mud.   Drill Site Title Opinion The written statement of opinion from a title examiner on the status of the title to a drill site, usually in letter form. This is generally prepared in preparation of drilling the well to assure title. Compare division order opinion, title opinion.   Drill Stem Drill pipe in rotary drilling, or solid shaft in cable tool drilling, to which the bit is attached.   Drill String The long assembly of drill bit, drill collars and many lengths of pipe that is turned by the rotary table and cuts through the rock.   Drilling The act of boring a hole (1) to determine whether minerals are present in commercially recoverable quantities and (2) to accomplish production of the minerals (including drilling to inject fluids). There are three types of drilling: exploratory - drilling to locate probable mineral deposits or to establish the nature of geological structures; such as wells may not be capable of production if minerals are discovered; developmental - drilling to delineate the boundaries of a known mineral deposit to enhance the productive capacity of the producing mineral property; and directional - drilling that is deliberately made to depart significantly from the vertical.   Drilling Contractor A person or company whose business is drilling wells. Wells are drilled on several contract specifications: per foot, day rate, or turnkey (that is, upon completion). Most major oil companies do not own drilling rigs. Exploration and development is contract. Personnel manning the rigs work for the contractor.   Drilling Mud See Mud.   Drilling Operations Any work or actual operations undertaken or commenced in good faith for the purpose of carrying out any of the rights, privileges, or duties of the lessee under a lease.   Drilling Permit In those states that regulate well spacing, the authorization from the regulatory agency to drill a well.   Drilling Platform An offshore platform used to drill exploration and development wells but lacking the processing facilities of a production platform.   Drilling Rig A drilling unit that is not permanently fixed to the seabed, e.g. a drillship, a semi-submersible or a jack-up unit. Also means the derrick and its associated machinery.   Drilling Table The turning device on the derrick floor in which the drill sting is held and rotated. Also called a rotary table.   Drillship A ship fitted with a drilling derrick that is used to drill in waters that are too deep for jack-up rigs and semi-submersible rigs.   Dry Gas Gas that contains a negligible amount of water vapor or does not contain dissolved liquid hydrocarbons.   Dry Hole A completed well which is not productive of oil and/or gas (or which is not productive of oil and/or gas in paying quantities).   Dry Hole Contributions Money or property paid by adjoining property owners to another operator drilling a well on property in which the payors have no property interest. Such contributions are payable only in the event the well reaches an agreed depth and is found to be dry.   Dual Completion The completion of a well into two separate producing formations at different depths, so that each zone is produced simultaneously.   Dual Discovery An exploratory well that finds petroleum in two separate reservoirs.   Due Diligence Prudent examination and analysis by accountants, engineers, landmen, and attorneys of title, environmental representatives, warranties, and indemnities in acquisitions and sales of oil and gas properties.   Due Diligence (as it relates to Unclaimed Property) Furnishing written notice to the apparent owner of unclaimed property (held by the holder at the time prescribed by law) prior to the holder including the name of the apparent owner on an unclaimed property report to a particular jurisdiction. Some jurisdictions have a monetary threshold exempting small amounts from the due diligence requirements.   Duhig Rule 1. Court generally deals with the problem of overconveyance by warranty deed by deducting the overconveyance from the grantor’s interest, to the extent that is possible. Grantor and a third party each owned 1/2 mineral interest. Grantor conveyed the land to a grantee reserving 1/2 of the minerals. Grantee gets 1/2 and the third party gets 1/2 leaving the grantor with nothing, because all he had was 1/2. To protect himself, deed should have said reserving 1/2 of the minerals subject to the third party’s 1/2 mineral interest. (TX, CO, OK, NM, WY, LA, MS. AL, AR). Also triggers the doctrine of acquired title - estopped from saying still own minerals after you convey them to someone. 2. A rule of title interpretation developed to deal with the common problem of overconveyance of fractional interests by giving priority to the granted interest over the reserved interest.  Duhig v. Peavy-Moore Lumber Co., Inc., 144 S.W.2d 878 (Tex. 1940).  The rule is not accepted in all states and is generally limited to conveyances by warranty deed.   Dumb Corner Back-up man held rope while the cathead man spun the tongs to tighten drill stem or cable rig.   Duster A dry hole, no oil or gas found.