Condensate

A natural gas liquid with a low vapor pressure, compared with natural gasoline and liquified petroleum gas. It is produced from a deep well where the temperature and pressure are high. Gas condenses as it rises up the wellbore and reaches the surface as condensate. Similarly, condensate separates out naturally in pipelines or in a separation plant by the normal process of condensation.

Condensate

Liquid hydrocarbons produced with natural gas which are separated from it by cooling, expansion, and various other means (also called "distillate").

Continental margin

A zone separating the emergent continents from the deep sea bottoms.

Continental shelf

A broad, gently sloping, shallow feature extending from the shore to the continental slope.

Continental slope

A relatively steep, narrow feature paralleling the continental shelf; the region in which the steepest descent of the ocean bottom occurs.

COST

Continental Offshore Stratigraphic Test. These tests under the direction of the Minerals Management Service are wells deliberately drilled to provide geological information pertinent to competitive bidding for offshore tracts.

Demonstrated reserves (American Petroleum Institute)

A collective term for the sum of proved and indicated reserves. Proved reserves are estimated with reasonable certainty to be recovered under current economic conditions. Indicated reserves are economic reserves in known productive reservoirs in existing fields expected to respond to improved recovery techniques where (1) an improved technique has been installed but its effect cannot yet be fully evaluated, or (2) an improved technique has not been installed but knowledge of reservoir characteristics and the results of a known technique installed in a similar situation are available for use in the estimating procedure.

Development

Activities following exploration including the installation of facilities and the drilling and completion of wells for production purposes.

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.