After a
seemingly never-ending and fruitless search for a useful oil and gas
glossary on the Internet, a visitor, Mary Mixon, graciously
submitted the wordlist she compiled over many years of reporting
in the Southeastern United States.
If you have a
wordlist you feel would be helpful to other reporters and don't
mind sharing it with the rest of the world, please attach it to
an email and send it to webmaster@depoman.com.
AAODC - American Association of Oilwell Contractors
AAPG - American Association of Petroleum Geologists
A.D. - assistant driller
AFE - authorization for expenditure
AIPG - American Institute of Professional Geologists
AIMME - American Association of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers
API - American Petroleum Institute
API Environmental Biology Committee
API Soil & Groundwater Technical Task Force
API VADSAT model (software)
ASME - American Society of Mechanical Engineers
ASSE - American Society of Safety Engineers
abandon - to cease producing oil and gas from a well
absolute permeability - measure of the ability of a single fluid
such as water, gas or
oil to flow through rock formation
accumulator drum
acetic acid
acidic - relating to acid
achromatic
acidation
acrid fracture - to part or open fractures
acidize - to treat oil-bearing limestone
Ad Hoc Subcommittee for Naturally Occurring Low Level Radioactive
Material
Red Adair Company
adiabatic - refers to change in which there is no gain or Ioss of
heat
adjustable choke - choke used to vary flow
aggregate
air-actuated - powered by compressed air
air drilling - drilling with compressed air
air hoist
ALARA - as low as reasonably achievable
alkyl lead
Alyeska Pipeline Service Company - built Trans-Alaska Pipeline
AMI - area of mutual interest
AMIA - area of mutual interest agreement
American Petrofina
Amoco Exploration & Production Company
angle of deflection - angle expressed in degrees
annular blowout preventer - large valve
annular space - space surrounding cylindrical object within a
cylinder
annulus - space between casing and wall of wellbore
anomoly, anomolous
anticline, anticlinal - arched, inverted trough configuration
apomecometer - surveying instrument
aquifier
ARAMCO - Arab-American Oil Company
arc welding
ARCO - Atlantic Richfield Company
areal - area
ARIES - software
Aruba - island off Venezuela
Ashland Oil Company
asphaltic pyrobitumens - harder and more infusible than asphaltites
asphaltites - hard, solid hydrocarbons
associated reservoir - gas is present in association with oil &
vice versa
Atomic Energy Control Board
attrited
Atwater
BEIR report - Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation
report
BEIR I, II, III, IV, V
BFPB - barrels of fluids per day
B.P. Environmental Journal
BS&W - basic sediment and water
Btu - British thermal unit
BWTR - brine water
babbit
back off - unscrew one threaded piece
back up - hold one section while another is screwed into or out of
it
bail - cylindrical steel bar
bailer - cylindrical container
bailing line - cable
Baker packer
Baker Hughes Drilling Company
balance plug
barite - barium sulfate {BaSO}
Barite - the company that makes it
barium sulfate - chemical combination of barium, sulfur and oxygen
barium strontium sulfate
Baroid Petroleum Services Division NL
Basic Chemicals Technology Center
basket sub - a fishing accessory run above a bit or mill to recover
metal or junk in a well
Bass Enterprises, Bass Enterprises Production Company
bed - layer of earth or rock
belt - flexible band or cord
bentonite - clay soil
Bentonite - a gel chemical
Billy Pugh basket, Billy Pugh net
bit - cutting tool
bit breaker - heavy plate that fits in rotary table and holds drill
bit
bit record - a report on each bit
bitt - fixture on a boat
bitumen - hydrocarbons of pyrogenous origin
blackjack
blind ram - part of blowout preventer
block - an assembly of pulleys
block outline map
blooey line - discharge pipe
blowout - uncontrolled flow of gas, oil or other well fluids
Bohr theory
BOP - blowout preventer - valve installed at wellhead to prevent
escape of pressure
boll-weevil - inexperienced rig worker
bomb - thick-walled container to hold samples of oil or gas
boomer - transient oilfield worker
borehole - the wellbore
bottomhole - lowest part of well
bottomhole choke - device with restricted opening to control rate of
flow
box - female section of a tool joint
Boyle's law
Bradenhead technique
brake - device for arresting the motion of a mechanism
break out - unscrew one section of pipe from another
breakout cathead - device attached to shaft of drawworks
breakout tongs - tongs used to unscrew one section of pipe from
another
bridge plugs
bring in a well - complete a well
broaching tool
1-bromo-3-fluorobenzene
bronc - new driller recently promoted from helper
Bruening bearings
buck up - tighten up a threaded connection
bullet perforator - tubular device
bullheading - pumping fluids down annular space
bullplug, bullplugged, bullplugging
bull wagon
bull wheel - wooden spool
BULLWINKLE (Shell Oil rig)
bunker C fuel oil
CMC - sodium carboxymethycellulose
C.P. - casing point
CWI - carried working interest
CWIFN
cable - rope of wire, hemp or other strong fibers
cable-tool drilling - drilling method
caisson
calcium bromide, calcium chloride
caliper logging - operation to determine diameter of wellbore
camlock
cantilever beam
cap rock - impermeable rock overlying oil or gas reservoir
cased - pertaining to a wellbore in which casing is run and cemented
cased hole - wellbore in which casing has been run
casing - steel pipe placed in well as drilling progresses
casing centralizer - device secured around casing to center it in
hole
casing coupling - tubular section of pipe
casinghead - heavy flanged fitting
casing potential log
casing shoe - guide shoe
casing string - entire length of all joints of casing
casing tube annulus
cat cracker
catalytic light ends
catalytic heavy ends
catch samples - obtain cuttings for geological information
catalytic light ends; heavy ends
cathead - spool-shaped attachment on a winch
cathode, cathodic
catline - hoisting line powered by cathead
catwalk - a place to walk
caving - collapse of walls of wellbore, also called sloughing
cellar - pit in the ground to provide height between rig floor and
wellhead cement bond logs
cement casing - fill annulus between casing and hole with cement
cement squeeze
chain drive - power system
chain tongs - tool for turning pipe or fittings
chamfer - tapered or conical end of threaded pipe or coupling
cheater bar
cheater pipe
check valve - valve that permits flow in one direction
Chevron U.S.A., Inc.
Chiksan rack
Chiksan (Division of FMC Corporation)
choke - restricts flow
choke line - extension of pipe from blowout preventer
choke manifold - arrangement of piping and valves
Christmas tree - control valves, pressure gauges and chokes
circulation - movement of drilling fluid
CITGO Petroleum {formerly Cities Service}
Citronelle aquifer
Class I, II, III, IV, V injection wells
clinometer - instrument for measuring angles of elevation (see
Inclinometer)
coal bed methane
coalesce - gravity separation of gas or immiscible liquid
Cockfield formation
combination string - casing string
come out of the hole - pull drill stem out of wellbore
compaction
company man - company representative on the rig
compensator cylinder
conduction
coning
continental shelf
contract depth - depth of wellbore at which drilling contract is
fulfilled
convection
Cook Mountain limestone
core - cylindrical sample taken for geological analysis
core barrel - tubular device to cut a core sample
Coulomb's law
cross-thread
crown block - sheaves or pulleys
Cudd Pressure Control, Inc.
Cullender Smith
cusping
D&A - dry and abandoned
DC - drill collar
DD&A - depreciation, depletion & amortization
DDR - daily drilling report
DMR - discharge monitoring report
DNR - Department of Natural Resources
DOPP - Drilling Operations Printer Plots
DRH - Department of Radiological Health
DRILOP - Drilling Optimization report
DRODB - (pronounced "drob") Drilling, Recompletion, and
Repair Operations Data Base
DST - drill stem test
daily sidetrack report
darcy - unit of permeability
daughter products
daughters of radon decay
deadline - drilling line from crown block sheave to anchor
deadline tie-down anchor - device to which deadline is attached
deadman - buried anchor
Decca
degasser - equipment used to remove gas from liquid
deliverability test
density - mass or weight of a substance
density log
depletion drive mechanism
depletion drive reservoir
derrick - large load-bearing structure
derrickhand
derrickman - crew member who handles upper end of drill stem
desander - centrifugal device for removing sand from drilling fluid
descaling tubulars
desilter - device for removing very fine particles from drilling
fluid
desulfurization
deviated hole
Dhahran, Saudi Arabia
diamond bit - drilling bit surfaced with industrial diamonds
1,2-dichloroethane
dielectric logging
dipmeter - log from which formation dip magnitude and azimuth can be
determined
directional drilling - intentional deviation of wellbore from
vertical
doghouse - small enclosure on rig floor used as an office
dogleg - sharp change in direction
dolphin deck - deck on a rig
doodlebug - seismograph used in prospecting for potential oil-bearing structures
double board - working platform of the derrickman
downdip limits
downgradient
downhole
drawworks - hoisting mechanism
Dresser Industries (Magcobar)
drill bit - cutting or boring tool
drill collar - heavy steel tube used between drill pipe and bit
drill floor
driller - employee directly in charge of drilling rig and crew
driller's panel
drill string
dump bailers
duster - a dry well
Dutchman - portion of screw left after head has been twisted off
Dyna-Drill - downhole motor
dynamometer
EDP - electronic data processing
EL&P - exploration, land & production
ENSCO - Energy Services Company, Inc.
EOR - enhanced oil recovery - secondary recovery
E&P - exploration and production
ERE - employee road expense
ER&E - Exxon Research & Engineering Company
effluent - flowing out
electric well log - record of electrical characteristics of
formations
electrodynamic brake - device mounted on the end of drawworks
electromotive force
eluvial deposit - loose material
erg - unit of energy
Escataupa
Everdingen
exploitation - use or utilization
Exploration Employment Service, Inc.
Exxon Corporation
Exxon Company USA
Exxon Research & Engineering Company
FDC - future development costs
FDCNL - formation density/compensation neutron log
FMWTR - formation water
Fairbanks-Morse
fastline - end of a drilling line affixed to drawworks
fault - break in subsurface strata
C. H. Fenstermaker & Associates, Inc. (land surveyors)
fill the hole - to pump drilling fluid into wellbore
filter cake - compacted solid or semisolid material
fines - crushed ore, sand
fingerboard - rack that supports tops of strands of pipe
firebox
fish - object left in wellbore during drilling operation
fishing tool - tool designed to recover equipment lost in well
flange face spacer
flapper
flash butt welding
flashover
flashout
float collar - coupling device
flocculation - abnormal thickening of drilling fluid
floorhand, floorman - drilling crew member
Flores & Rucks (now Ocean Energy)
flow line
flowmeter
flow stand
flue gas
Fluor Drilling Services, Inc.
fluorides
foot-pound - unit of energy in gravitational system
force majeure - take or pay
formation fines
formation fluids
formout
fourble board - working platform of derrickman
frac tank (fracture)
Freeport-McMoRan, Inc.
fresh water (n.)
freshwater (adj.)
Furuno
FVHDM - a valve
GC - ground contamination
GI - gas injection
GL - gas lift
GOR - gas/oil ratio
GPC - gas purchase contract
galvanometer
gamma ray log
gas-bearing sand
gas-lift mandrels
Geiger-Muller - Geiger counter
Geolograph - patented device referred to as "tattletale"
geomorphology
geophone - in seismology, a sensor which picks up acoustical waves
geopressure
geothermal
girth weld
go-jo (brand name, hand cleaner)
Goliad Corporation (Div. of Mobil Oil Co.)
guide shoe - section of steel filled with concrete
Greenhill Petroleum Corporation
gun-perforate - create holes in casing
Hcl - hydrogen chloride gas (l is lowercase L)
HPLC - high pressure liquid chromatography
Halliburton Company
Handbook 45
Harnischfeger
Hassie Hunt Exploration Company
Hattiesburg aquifer
headache - cry of warning of falling objects
heater-treater bottoms
heater-treater hay
heavy ends
Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle (Werner Heisenberg)
heliarc (welding)
heliport deck
Hercules Offshore Corporation
Rig HERCULES 25
1-hexane
Hitachi Kokubu
Hitachi, Ltd.
honey oil
Hosston, Paluxy and Rodessa formations
hotshot - carrying radioactive material
Hydrafrac - trade name of operation whereby formations are fractured by hydraulic pressure
hydrazine - rocket fuel
Hydril Company (Houston)
hydril - drilling mud
hydrocarbon-bearing (adj.)
hydrocarbons
hydrofiners
hydrogeology, hydrogeological
hydromatic brake - braking device
hydrostatic
hydrotest
IADC - International Association of Drilling Contractors
IADC - daily activity report
IAODC - daily activity report
I.D. - inside diameter
IPAA - Independent Petroleum Association of America
impermeable, impermeability
impound basins
impressed currents - installed to reduce corrosion
Inclinometer - trade name of instrument used to determine vertical
orientation (see clinometer)(inclinometer)
infill drilling
inflow
Ingalls Shipyard, Pascagoula, MS.
insolubility
International Logistics, Inc.
International Lubricant Corporation
ionize, ionizing
isopach map
isotope
JIB - joint interest billable
jack bar
jackup drilling rig - rig with legs that adjust up and down
Jayred Oil & Gas Company
jet-perforate - create a hole through casing with charge of
explosives
Johnston-Macco-Flopetrol
joint - about 30 feet of pipe
jug - geophones
jug hustler - helper on seismic crew who puts geophones in place
junk - debris lost in a hole
Justiss-Mears
KATCO, Inc.
Kazakhstan
kelly - heavy steel member suspended through rotary table
kelly bushing - transmits torque to kelly
kelly spinner - causes kelly to spin
kick - entry of water, gas, oil or other fluid into wellbore
kinetic energy
koomey fluid
LACT - lease automatic custody transfer - automatic
unattended system to transfer oil and gas from a lease
LACT unit - automated system for measuring oil
LAMOGA - Louisiana/Mid-Continent Oil & Gas Association
LC - lower concentration
LSA - low specific gravity
landfarm, landfarmed, landfarming
lead tongs - also called breakout tongs
leadoff
light ends
line log
liquefaction
liquefy, liquefied
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
log - recording of data
logging sonde
Lo-NOx burners
Louisiana Mineral Code (book)
Louisiana Mud Company
Lower Sparta formation
Lower Tuscaloosa formation
Lower Wilcox formation
M.C. panel (master control)
MCA acid
Mcf - 1000 cubic feet
MEMA - Mississippi Energy Management Agency
MIG, mig - metal-inert gas welding
MIT - mechanical integrity test
MLP - master limited partnership
MMS - Minerals Management Service
MOGA - Mid-Continent Oil & Gas Association
MSA - Mine Safety Act
MSD - Memorandum of Significant Decisions
MWD - measurement while drilling
Magcobar-Dresser International
magnetic brake - electrodynamic brake
make a trip - hoist drill stem out of wellbore
make hole - deepen the hole made by the bit
make up - assemble and join parts
man-hours
mandrels
Manitowoc
marsh buggy
Marsh Buggies, Inc.
Mayronne Drilling Mud
The Mayronne Company
medevac helicopter
Milpark Drilling Fluids (Houma)
Miocene (sand) geology
miscible flood - pumping carbon dioxide into formation to mix with
trapped oil
monkeyboard - derrickman's working position
Moorall Oil & Gas
motorman - crew member
Mount Airy Refinery
mousehole - opening through rig floor
mud buggies
mud gun - pipe that shoots jet of drilling mud under high pressure
mud logging - recording of information
mud man - mud engineer
Murchison Drilling Schools
N2 - nitrogen
NDT - net dry ton
NGVD - National Geodetic Vertical Datum
NL Baroid Logging Systems
NL Baroid/NL Industries, Inc.
NL McCullough
NL McCullough/NL Industries, Inc. (Now Western Atlas)
Nacco-Schlumberger
C.E. NATCO
needle valve - valve that incorporates needle-point disk to produce
regulation of flow
nipple - tubular pipe fitting threaded on both ends
nipple chaser - man tho delivers tools and equipment
nipple up - assemble BOP stack on wellhead
nomograph - alignment chart
OCS - outer continental shelf
OCS-G ### (Outer Continental Shelf, Gulf, then lease #)
ODECO - Ocean Drilling & Exploration Company
OGB - Oil & Gas Board
OGTI, Inc.
OIM - Operations Installation Manager, a/k/a toolpusher
OPCO - operating company
OPEC - Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries
OPIS - Oil Price Information Service
Occidental Oil & Gas Corporation
Ocean Energy, Inc. (formerly Flores & Rucks)
Offshore General, Inc.
Offshore Logistics
ohmmeter
Ohm's law
Oil-Dri (brandname)
oilfield (adj.)
oil field (n.)
Oil Patch
oil well
open hole - wellbore in which casing has not been set
open-hole log
overshot - fishing tool attached to tubing and lowered over outside
wall of pipe lost
OXY USA, Inc.
P&A - plug and abandon
PAF - professional accounting fellow
PBTD - plug back total depth
PEC - Petroleum Education Council
PERF - Petroleum Environmental Research Forum
P.I. - Petroleum Information
P.O.B. reports (personnel on board)
POOH - pulling out of hole
P.R.E. - Petroleum Refining Engineer (degree)
PUD - proved undeveloped
PUP - pickup joints
PVT - pressure-volume-temperature packer
paleontology - branch of geology that studies fossils
Paluxy formation
partial water drive
pay zone - reservoir, rock where oil and gas found
Pennzoil
Perfco Wireline
perforate - pierce casing wall to provide holes
perforating gun - device used to create penetrating holes
permeability - measure of ability of fluids to flow through porous
rock
petra solidus - Latin for rock hard
Petra Solidus - company in California
Petro-Marine Engineering, Inc.
Petrol Marine, Inc.
petrotographypetrophysical
Phillips Petroleum Company
Pielstick engine
piezometer - gauge used for determination of water table elevation
piezometer data - measure of pressure or compressibility, water
table elevation
pig - device for carrying radioactive material (smart pig)
pin - male section of tool joint
pipe fitter
pipe fitting, pipefitting
pipeline (n.)
pipe ram - sealing component for BOP
plugback depth
pore - opening or space within rock or mass of rocks
pore volume
porosity
potentiometric surface - water level of a well
potentiometric titration
pressure gradient - scale of pressure differences
pressure relief valve - relieves excessive pressure
prime mover - internal-combustion engine that is source of power
Production Operations - book by Uren
prog (progress)
proj (projected)
PROJ TD (projected total depth)
proppant - propping agent
propping agent - sand grains or aluminum pellets
protension recompletion
psi - pounds per square inch
Billy Pugh basket, Billy Pugh net
Pugh clause
quartzose sandstone
quebracho - South American tree, name means "axe breaker,"
used for thinning agent
RBP - retrievable bridge plus
RSMD - resumed
RSPA - Research & Special Programs Administration
RIH - run in hole
RTTS - retrievable test treater squeeze
racker - bottom racker, top racker
radioactive tracer survey
radioactive well logging - recording of natural or induced
radioactive characteristics
ram - closing and sealing component on a BOP
rathole - hole in the rig floor for kelly and swivel
Raymond Offshore Constructors, Inc.
reave - break or tear apart
Red Adair Company
reeve - pass end of rope through hole or opening
remanents of sand
Report of Occupational Injury & Illness
rig down - dismantle drilling rig
Rig ROWAN PARIS
Rowan Companies, Inc.
Rowan Drilling Company
rigout (n.)
rigup (n.)
rig up - prepare drilling rig for making hole
riprap - boards
Rodessa formation
roller cone bit - drilling bit made of two, three or four cones
rotary table - principal component of rotary
roughneck - rotary helper, also floorman or rig crewman
round trip - action of pulling out and running back in the hole
roustabout - worker who handles equipment and supplies
run in - to go into the hole
Ryder-Scott
SAFE - Safety Award for Excellence
SCSSV - safety valve
SP deflection - spontaneous potential curve
SPE - Society of Petroleum Engineers
Sq - squeeze
ST - sidetrack
STOP - Safety Training Observation Program (DuPont course)
SWD - saltwater disposal
Salathe Oil Company, Inc.
salt water (n.)
saltwater (adj.)
Samedan Oil Corporation
sand and fines
sandfrac - injection of jellied oil and graded sand into formation
scale inhibition technology
The Schlumberger Companies
scratcher - device fastened to outside of casing that removes mud
cake from wall of hole
Scurlock Oil (Houston)
seismograph - detects reflections of vibration of the earth
semisubmersible drilling rig - floating rig
setback floor
set casing - cement casing at a certain depth
settling pit - mud pit
shaker - shale shaker
shaker hand
S.S. - shale shaker, series of trays with sieves that vibrate
shear ram - components of BOP that cut or shear through drill pipe
sheave - grooved pulley
shot point map
shut-in bottomhole pressure - pressure at bottom of well
sidetrack report - portion of well is redrilled, sidetrack
slickline - wireline
slips - used to prevent pipe from slipping
sludge
slurry - mixture of cement and water
Smackover formation
smart pig - scrapes iron oxide scales from inside pipe
SmithKline Beecham, Inc. (lab)
snub
sonic log
sonde - tool used in electric logging
sour crude - oil containing large amount of sulfur
Sparta aquifer
Sparta formation
Sparta sand
spinning cathead - spooling attachment on makeup cathead
spud - move drill stem up and down
squeegee - T-shaped tool for cleaning windows (see suegee)
squeeze manifold
stab - guide end of pipe into a coupling or tool joint
stabbing board - temporary platform
standpipe - vertical pipe
Stanolin Oil & Gas Company (now Amoco)
step rate test - determine frac pressure
stinger - keeps pipe from bending
Stork Werkspoor
strata, stratum
stratification - layering characteristics of sedimentary rocks
stratigraphy
striation
string - entire length of casing, tubing or drill pipe run into a
hole
string up - thread drilling line through sheaves of crown block
stull - platform laid on timbers
submersible drilling rig - offshore rig that is flooded and
submerged
suction pit - mud pit from which mud is picked up by suction of mud
pumps
suegee - to swab a deck, also
suegee- wugee, sujii-wujii
surge pond
swab unit
swage - short piece of pipe with one end smaller than the other
sweet crude - oil containing little or no sulfur
syncline - downwarped, trough-shaped configuration
of stratified rocks
II-D - disposal well
II-R - enhanced recovery, secondary recovery
TA - temporarily abandon
TA’d - temporarily abandoned
TCU - Thornhill-Craver unit
TD - total depth
TDT - thermal decay time logs
TIG, tig - tungsten-inert gas welding
TIPRO - Texas Independent Producers & Royalty Owners Association
TIW valve - Texas Iron Works valve
TMA Eberline Analytical, Inc.
TMOGA - Texas/Mid-Continent Oil & Gas Association
TOA - time of accident
TRDP - downhole valve
tack welding
tag line
Team Service, Inc.
Teledyne Exploration Company
Teledyne Meria Corporation
Teledyne Movible Offshore, Inc.
Texas deck
Texaco Inc. (no comma)
theodolite - surveying instrument
thribble board - monkeyboard
Timbalier
tongs - large wrenches used for turning when making up or breaking
out drill pipe
Tonkawa
toolbox
tool hand
toolpusher - employee of drilling contractor who is in charge of
drilling crew, a/k/a
OIM, Operations Installation Manager
tour - (pronounced "tower") 8-hour shift or 12-hour shift
Trans-Alaska Pipeline
TransAmerican Refining Corporation (Good Hope Refinery)
traveling block - arrangement of pulleys or sheaves
treater hay
tricone bit - bit with three cone-shaped cutting devices
tubing anchor
Tuscaloosa aquifer
Tuscaloosa reservoir
Tuscaloosa trend, sand
turbodrill - drilling tool
turnkey contract
UIC injection well
UNOCAL - Union Oil Company of California
USDW - underground source of drinking water
USGS - U.S. Geological Survey
United Arab Emirates
updip
upgradient
U-tubing
Upper Tuscaloosa formation
Upper Wilcox formation
upperlying strata
V.R. plug - valve release
vadose zone - found above water table, wandering water
Varsol - Exxon product
vee packing
V-door - window, an opening in side of derrick
veeder route counter
velocity set valve
venturi inlet pressure
Vierendeel trusses
Visqueen (plastic)
voltammeter
vug - cavity in a rock
WAG - water alternating with gas
WATSTOR - software
WOC - waiting on cement
water-drive reservoir
waterflood, waterflooding
weep hole
weevil - green hand
Welex
wellbore - borehole, hole drilled by the bit
wellhead - equipment installed at surface of wellbore
well logging - recording of information
wellsite
Welltech, Inc.
Wheless Industries, Inc.
whipstock - long, steel casing to deflect bit
widow maker
Wilcox formation
Wilcox sand
wildcat - well drilled where no oil or gas production exists
Williams-McWilliams
wireline - small slender rodlike piece of metal
workover rig - a rig that is restored
worm - new, inexperienced worker
Zapata Gulf Marine Corporation
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