P

Paraxylene
An aromatic compound used to make polyester fibers and plastic soft drink bottles.

Pay Zone
The stratum of rock in which oil and/or gas is found.

Permeability
The capacity of a rock or stratum to allow water or other fluids, such as oil, to pass through it.

Petrochemical
An intermediate chemical derived from petroleum, hydrocarbon liquids or natural gas: ethylene, propylene, benzene, toluene and xylene.

Petroleum
A generic name for hydrocarbons, including crude oil, natural gas liquids, natural gas and their products.

Petroleum Coke
Solid carbon or coke retained as a residue in tar stills after high-temperature distillation.

Pig
A cylindrical device that is inserted into a pipeline to clean the pipeline wall or monitor the internal condition of the pipeline. Also called a go-devil.

Pilings
Long steel piles driven into the seabed to anchor fixed offshore structures solidly in place.

Pipeline
A pipe through which natural gas, crude oil or petroleum products are pumped between two points, either onshore or offshore.

Plastic
A generic term for a range of high-molecular-weight polymers that can be used to produce a variety of items.

Plastic Resins
A class of petroleum-based materials that can be molded to form plastic items or used as the basis of adhesives.

Plateau Level
The level of peak production reached by an oil or gas field; it is always followed by declining level of production.

Platform
An offshore structure from which development wells are drilled; see drilling installation, production installation.

Platt's FOB MED - 
free on board Mediterranean prices as stipulated by Platt's.

Playa Lakes Joint Venture
Phillips was one of the founding partners of this cooperative partnership of government and private organizations to preserve the playas of Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado and Kansas. Playas, which are small, shallow basins, serve as critical habitat for some 4 million ducks, geese and sandhill cranes. An important part of the effort is providing teachers in the playa region with educational materials that stress the importance of playas. In 1991, the joint venture was awarded a Presidential Citation by President George Bush.

Plugging
The process whereby a well that is no longer (and never likely to be) needed is filled with concrete and abandoned. Often referred to as "p&a" -- plugged and abandoned.

Polymer
A complex compound formed by the polymerization of one or more monomers.

Polyethylene
Plastic made from ethylene; used in manufacturing trash bags, milk jugs, shampoo bottles, water coolers and cable coating, among other things.

Polyphenylene Sulfide
An engineering plastic with excellent resistance to most chemicals. See Ryton.

Polypropylene
Basic plastic formed by joining propylene molecules together. Used in the manufacture of synthetic fibers, automotive parts, luggage, safety helmets and home construction.

Powerformer
The commercial name of the Esso proprietary naphtha catalytic reforming processor.

PPM
The abbreviation for "parts per million," the scale on which impurities and contaminants in oils, gases and petrochemicals are measured.

Processing Plant
A facility designed to separate substances or make new substances through chemical reactions, procedures or physical actions.

Produced Water
Brines that flow or are lifted to the surface with oil.

Product Yield
The percentages of gasoline, jet fuel, kerosene, gas oil, distillates, residual fuel oil, lubricating oil and solid products that a refinery can produce from a single barrel of crude oil.

Production Drilling
Drilling of wells in order to bring a field into production.

Production Installation
An installation from which development wells are drilled and that carries all the associated processing plants and other equipment needed to maintain a field in production.

Production License
A document issued by the governing state granting an oil company authority to produce oil and natural gas in a designated geographic area.

Production Phase
The productive life of an oil or gas field.

Production Platform
A platform from which development wells are drilled and that carries all the associated processing plants and other equipment needed to maintain a field in production.

Production String
The tubing or piping in a production well through which oil or gas flows from the reservoir to the wellhead.

Production Well
A well used to remove oil or gas from a reservoir.

Propane
A heavy gaseous hydrocarbon found in crude oil and natural gas; used as fuel and in the making of petrochemicals.

Propylene
A raw material in the chemical, plastics and fibers industries. Major component of the plastic polypropylene.

Proven Field
An oil and/or gas field whose physical extent and estimated reserves have been determined.

Proven Reserves
Estimated quantities of hydrocarbons that geological and engineering data demonstrate will be recoverable from known oil and natural gas reservoirs under existing economic and operating conditions.

Pump Stations
Facilities placed along the route of a pipeline to keep oil or gas moving along with pressure or suction.