Glossary of terms

Explaining the terms used on our website

ACG - Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli
ACQ - Annual contract quantity
Acre - approximately 0.4 hectares
Actual serious incident frequency (SIF) - The number of serious incidents (per million hours worked). An incident is an event or chain of events that has caused or could have caused injury, illness and/or damage to/loss of property, the environment or a third party. All undesirable incidents are categorised according to the degree of seriousness, based on established categorisation matrices.
ADS - American Depositary Share
AFP - Agreement-based early retirement plan
AGM - Annual General Meeting
APA - Awards in pre-defined areas
Appraisal well - A well drilled to determine the extent and size of a petroleum discovery
Area of high biodiversity value - Comprises “Key biodiversity areas” included in the World Database on Key Biodiversity Areas managed by International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and Particularly Valuable and Sensitive Areas (“Særlig verdifulle og sårbare områder”) on the Norwegian Continental Shelf.
b/d - barrels per day
Bbl - barrel
Bcf - billion cubic feet
bcf/d - billion cubic feet per day
Bcm - billion cubic metres
Blowout preventer (BOP) - A large valve installed on top of a well which can be closed if the drilling crew loses control of the well (blowout).
BoD SSEC - Board of Directors’ Safety, Sustainability and Ethics committee
BOD - Board of Directors
Boe - barrels of oil equivalent
boe(/d) - barrels of oil equivalent (per day)
BTC - Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline
Btu - British thermal units
BTX - benzene, toluene, xylene
C$ - Canadian dollar
Capex - Capital expenditure
Carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions - CO₂ released to the atmosphere as a result of our processes and activities, including CO₂ emissions from energy generation, heat production, flaring (including well testing/well work-over), and remaining emissions from carbon capture and treatment plants. Separate data compiled for Equinor operated activities and equity basis.
Carbon dioxide (CO₂) equivalents - Carbon dioxide equivalent is a quantity that describes, for a given mixture and amount of greenhouse gas, the amount of CO2 that would have the same global warming potential.
CCS - Carbon capture and storage
CCUS - Carbon capture, utilisation and storage
CDP - CDP is a not-for-profit charity that runs a global disclosure system for investors, companies, cities, states and regions to report and benchmark their environmental impacts.
CHF - Swiss franc
CHP - Combined heat and power plant
Christmas (Xmas) tree - An assembly of pipes and valves installed on a wellhead.
CO2 - carbon dioxide
D&P - Development and production
DBP - Deferred bonus plan
Derrick - The steel tower which carries the drill string during drilling operations
Dividends - Includes cash dividend and scrip dividend
Drill bit - Attached to the end of the drill string. It is fitted with rotating teeth which bite their way through the rock during drilling
Drill string - A series of steel pipes screwed together, which link the drill bit with the drill rig. Each pipe is usually about 10 metres long. The string rotates and also conducts mud during the drilling operation.
Drilling mud (fluids) - A blend of chemicals and clay with water or oil used to lubricate and cool the drill bit, prevent the well from collapsing, keep possible oil and gas flows under control and transport drill cuttings (rock chips) to the surface
dwt - deadweight tonnes
EEA - European Economic Area
EFTA - European Free Trade Association
EITI - Extractives Industries Transparency Initiative
EMTN - Euro medium-term note
Energy consumption - Energy used for power generation and heat production in combustion processes, unused energy from flaring (including well testing/work-over and venting), energy sold/delivered to third parties and gross energy (heat and electricity) purchased.
EPC - engineering, procurement and construction
EPI - Exploration & Production International (business area)
EPN - Exploration & Production Norway (business area)
EU ETS - European Union Emissions Trading System
FCC - Fluid catalytic cracking
FEED - Front-end engineering design
FID - Final investment decision
FPSO - Floating production storage offloading
FracFocus - The US national hydraulic fracturing chemical registry
Fresh water - Naturally occurring water with a low concentration of salts, or generally accepted as suitable for abstraction and treatment to produce potable water. Includes water from public installations, wells (including groundwater reservoirs), lakes, streams, rivers and purchased fresh water. Fresh water produced from salt water on facilities/installations is not included.
GBS - Gravity-based structure
GDP - Gross domestic product
GDPR - General Data Protection Regulation
GHG - Greenhouse gas. For Equinor, the relevant GHGs are CO₂ and methane (CH4). Other GHGs are not included as they are assessed to be non- material for Equinor. Equinor uses a global warming potential that is 25 times higher than CO₂ in a 100-year perspective for methane, aligned with industry reporting practice.
GoM - Gulf of Mexico
Greenhouse gases - See GHG
GRI - Global Reporting Initiative
GTL - gas to liquids
Hazardous waste - Waste is considered to be hazardous waste according to the regulations under which the activity operates or where the waste can pose a substantial hazard to human health and/or the environment when improperly managed
HSE - health, safety and environment
HSSE - health, safety, security and environment
HTHP - High-temperature/high pressure
IASB - International Accounting Standards Board
IEA - International Energy Agency
IFRIC - International Financial Reporting Interpretations Committee
IFRS - International Financial Reporting Standards
Injected CO₂ - The total quantity of CO₂ injected into the subsurface for the purpose of storage or improved/enhanced oil recovery
Injection well - A well used for injecting gas or water to provide pressure support in a reservoir. Injection below an oil or gas zone helps to maintain pressure
IOGP - The International association of Oil & Gas Producers
IOR - Improved oil recovery
IPIECA - The global oil and gas industry association for environmental and social issues
kdwt - thousand deadweight tonnes
Km - kilometre
KPI - Key performance indicator
LNG - liquefied natural gas
LPG - liquefied petroleum gas
LTIP - long-term incentive plan
Mbbl - thousand barrels
Mboe - thousand barrels of oil equivalent
Mcm - thousand cubic metres
MEG - mono-ethylene glycol
Methane (CH4) emissions - CH4 released to the atmosphere including emissions from energy generation and heat production at own plants, flaring (including well testing/well work-over), cold venting, diffuse emissions, and the storage and loading of crude oil.
Methane intensity - Total methane emissions from our up- and midstream activities divided by the marketed gas, both on a 100 % operated basis.
Mmbbl - million barrels
Mmboe - million barrels of oil equivalent
Mmcf - million cubic feet
Mmcm - million cubic metres
MMP – Marketing, Midstream & Processing (business area)
Mmtpa - million tonnes per annum
MPE - Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy
mtpa - million tonnes per annum
Multilateral well - A well where several branches (sidetracks) have been drilled out through the wall of the original borehole.
MW - megawatts
NCS - The Norwegian Continental Shelf
Net carbon intensity - GHG emissions associated with the production and use of energy produced by Equinor, including negative emissions related to carbon services and offsets, divided by the amount of energy produced by the company (gCO₂e/MJ).
Net income - Net profit after all revenues, income items and expenses, including tax, have been accounted for.
NG - Natural Gas business cluster
NGL - natural gas liquids
NGO - non-governmental organisation
NICO - Naftiran Intertrade Co. Ltd
NIOC - National Iranian Oil Company
Nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions - NOx released from power generation and heat production, flaring (including well testing/well work-over) and process.
nmVOC - Non-methane volatile organic compounds (nmVOC) emissions released to the atmosphere from power generation and heat production, flaring (including well testing/well work-over), process, cold venting and fugitives.
NOC - national oil company
NOK - Norwegian kroner
Non-hazardous waste - Waste that is not defined as hazardous waste. This excludes drill cuttings and produced and flow-back water from our USA onshore operations which are exempted from regulation and are registered separately as ‘exempted waste’.
NOx - Nitrogen oxide
OECD - Organisation of Economic Co-Operation and Development
OGCI - Oil and Gas Climate Initiative
OML - onshore oil mining lease
OPEC - Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries
Operations - Temporary or permanent sites, activities and assets used for exploration, extraction, refining, transporting, distributing, and marketing petroleum products.
OPL - oil prospecting licence
OTC - Over-the-counter
Other spills - Unintentional spills of chemicals, produced water, ballast water and polluted water reaching the natural environment
OTS - Oil trading and supply department
Payments to governments - Payments made directly by Equinor to governments, such as income tax, host government entitlements (value), bonuses, royalties and fees, related to exploration and production activities. Includes environmental fees and taxes. Payments made on behalf of other license partners, e.g., area fees, are included.
PBO - Project benefit obligation
PDO - Plan for development and operation
PDP - Projects, Drilling & Procurement (business area)
Ppm - part per million
Produced water - Water that is brought to the surface during operations which extract hydrocarbons from oil and gas reservoirs
Production well - A well used to recover petroleum from a reservoir
Protected area - A protected area is a clearly defined geographical space, recognised, dedicated and managed, through legal or other effective means, to achieve the long term conservation of nature with associated ecosystem services and cultural values. (IUCN Definition 2008).
PSA - Production sharing agreement
PSC – Production sharing contract
Psychosocial work environment - The psychosocial work environment concerns aspects of the design and management of work and its social and organisational context that could have an impact on the employee’s health and well-being
Purchase of goods and services - Part of the cost is charged to partners in activities we operate.
R&D - research and development
Recovered waste - Waste from Equinor operated activities that has been delivered for reuse, recycling or incineration with energy recovery
Regular discharges of oil to water - Oil in regulated or controlled discharges to the sea from Equinor operated activities. This includes produced water, process water, displacement water, ballast water, jetting water, drainage water and water discharged from treatment plants
REMCO - Remuneration Committee
REN - Renewables (business area)
Revenues - Total revenues including income from sales of liquids on behalf of the Norwegian state’s direct financial interest
ROACE - Return on average capital employed
Roughneck - A drill floor worker, who performs heavy manual operations related to drilling. An iron roughneck is an automated system which has taken over many of the heaviest and most dangerous jobs on the drill floor
RRR - Reserve replacement ratio
RSP - restricted share plan
Safety and environmental fines - The monetary charge or payment imposed on a Equinor entity for failure to comply with safety and environmental laws and regulations. Only fines paid by Equinor as an operator are included. Fines are reported for the financial year
SAGD - Steam-assisted gravity drainage
scf - standard cubic feet
Scm - standard cubic metre
Scope 1 GHG emissions - Direct GHG emissions from operations that are owned and/or controlled by the organisation.
Scope 2 GHG emissions - Indirect GHG emissions from energy imported from third parties, heating, cooling, and steam consumed within the organisation. We use IEA (physical) and RE-DISS (market-based) as sources of scope 2 emissions factor, expressed as kg CO₂/kWh. A location-based calculation method reflects the average emissions intensity of grids (using mostly grid- average emission factor data). A market-based calculation method reflects emissions from electricity that companies have purposefully chosen (or their lack of choice). It derives emission factors from contracts between two parties for the sale and purchase of energy bundled with attributes about the energy generation, or for unbundled attribute claims. (Source: Greenhouse gas protocol).
Scope 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions - Emissions from the use of products (GHG Protocol category 11) originating from Equinor’s equity oil and gas production. Regional product spreads are assumed using IEA statistics.
SCP - South Caucasus Pipeline System
SDAG - Shtokman Development AG
SDFI - Norwegian State's Direct Financial Interest
SDGs - The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals
SDS - The International Energy Agency’s (IEA) Sustainable Development Scenario.
SEAPOP - A monitoring and mapping programme for Norwegian seabirds (SEAbird POPulations).
SEC - United States Securities and Exchange Commission
SIF - Serious incident frequency. The number of serious incidents (including near misses) per million hours worked. An incident is an event or chain of events that has caused or could have caused injury, illness and/or damage to/loss of property, the environment or a third party. All undesirable incidents are categorised according to degree of seriousness, based on established categorisation matrices.
Share of production in areas of high water stress - The share in % of Equinor’s operated production in areas of high or extremely high baseline water stress, versus Equinor’s total operated production. World Resources Institute’s Aqueduct® tool is used to determine baseline water stress, which is the ratio of total annual water withdrawal from a catchment to average annual available water to the same catchment. The Aqueduct® tool classifies stress into five levels, Low, Low-medium, Medium-high, High and Extremely high. (Aqueduct® indicator: Baseline Water Stress).
Sickness absence - The total number of sickness absence hours as a percentage of planned working hours (Equinor ASA employees).
SM/PO - styrene monomer/propylene oxide
Social investments - Includes voluntary and contractual payments. Part of the cost is charged to partners in activities we operate. Contractual social investments include the contributions that we are required to pay under the terms of the production sharing agreements (PSA) or contracts or host government agreements or national laws.
Spud - The first step in drilling a well, and the period when the drill bit first penetrates the seabed. Spud fever: an informal term for the hectic period immediately before a well is spudded
STEM - Science, technology, engineering and mathematics
SOx - Sulphur oxides emissions: SOx released from power generation and heat production, flaring and process.
tcf - trillion cubic feet
TCFD - Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures
TDI – Technology, Digital & Innovation (business area)
Toolpusher - The drilling contractor’s representative on the rig. Monitors progress with the drilling process and ensures that the right people and equipment are in place at all times to do the work.
Top drive - A motor suspended in the derrick to rotate the drill string as it penetrates the seabed.
TRCF - total recordable case frequency
TRIF - Total recordable injury frequency (TRIF). Number of fatal accidents, lost-time injuries, injuries involving substitute work and medical treatment injuries per million hours worked.
TSP - Technical service provider
UNGP - United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights
Upstream carbon dioxide (CO₂) emission intensity - Total scope one emissions of CO₂ (kg CO₂) from exploration and production, divided by total production (boe).
USD - United States dollar
USGC - United States Gulf Coast
VPSHR - Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights.
Waste - Materials are defined as waste when; they are classified as such according to the regulations under which the activity operates or where the material is contained and intended to be transported for further handling and/or re-use or disposal by a 3rd party. Residual materials from industrial activity, which are discharged, recycled, injected or reused at the place of generation as part of the consented operations, are not included
Wildcat/exploration well - The first well drilled on a completely new, clearly defined geological structure (prospect).
WRI - Work related illness (WRI) frequency. Number of Number of WRI incidents that result in death. Serious WRI, WRI that results in treatment from authorised health care personnel and other WRI per million of hours worked. For Equinor employees and contractors incidents that result in death, serious WRI, WRI that results in treatment from authorised health care personnel and other WRI per million of hours worked. For Equinor employees and contractors.
WTI - West Texas Intermediate