I can't think of that many acronyms used here...

B - barrels (of oil)
MB - millions of barrels
GB - gigabarrels, i.e. billions of barrels
TB - trillions of barrels
MBD - millions of barrels per day

These are obvious I think:

PO - peak oil
TOD - the oil drum!

ASPO - Association for the Study of Peak Oil www.peakoil.net, also www.aspo-usa.com
BG - Biomass gassification
BTL - Biomass-to-liquid
CAB -
CERA - Cambridge Energy Research Associates (Chairman Daniel Yergin) www.cera.com
CTL - Coal-to-liquid; see FT
DoE - US Department of Energy www.doe.gov
EIA - Energy Information Administration; division of US DoE www.eia.doe.gov
EROEI - Energy return on energy invested; aka energy profit ratio (EPR)
FIP - Fields in production
FT - Fischer-Tropsch process of converting methane or coal to liquid fuels
GOM or GOMEX - Gulf of Mexico
GTL - Gas-to-liquid; see FT
IEA - International Energy Agency www.iea.org
IHS - IHS Energy (consulting company, parent of CERA)
IOCs - International oil companies
JODI - Joint oil data initiative www.jodidata.org/
LNG - Liquified natural gas, refrigerated for shipping
LPG - Liquified petroleum gas (propane and butane)
LQHC - Low quality hydrocarbons, i.e.tar sands and oil shale
MENA - Middle East and North Africa--includes Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates
MER - Maximum effective rate (of production)
MMS - Minerals Management Service; division of US Dept. of the Interior
MRC - Maximum Reservoir Contact
MSM - Mainstream media
NG - Natural gas (mainly methane)
NGL - Natural gas liquids (ethane, propane, butane, isobutane and natural gasoline)
NOCs - National oil companies
OGJ - The Oil & Gas Journal
OOIP - Original oil in place
RUL - Regular unleaded gasoline
SA - Saudi Arabia
SPR - Strategic petroleum reserve
TOD - The Oil Drum www.theoildrum.com
ULSD - Ultra-low sulfur diesel
USGS - United States Geological Survey
URR  - Ultimately recoverable resources
VMT - Vehicle miles traveled
WTI - West Texas intermediate (crude)

OECD = Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development
OPEC = Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries
Non-OPEC = Info here: http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/nonopec.html

P/Q - Pique to Qumulative

BTUs - British thermal units
FSU - Former Soviet Union
GHGs - Greenhouse gases (CO2, methane)

TSHTF - Usually preceded by "When."

Terms that everyone should understand (PG, I assume you're going to put the together the post w/definitions, right?)

• EOR (enhanced oil recovery)
• E&P (exploration and production)
• URR (ultimately recoverable reserves)
• OOIP (original oil in place)
• LNG (liquified natural gas)
• GTL (gas to liquids conversion)
• CTL (coal to liquids conversion)
• BOE (barrels of oil equivalent)
• BBLs (barrels of usually oil)
• MBPD (million barrels per day == MMb/d
• GB (gigabarrels = billion barrels = Bbo
• RP ratio (reserves/production = years)
• Qt (the estimated URR from a Hubbert Lineariation)
• TCF (trillion cubic feet -- dry natural gas)
• MMx (million x)
• IEA (International Energy Agency in Paris)
• CERA (Cambridge Energy Research Associates (Daniel Yergin
• EIA (Energy Information Admistration (DOE)
• DOE (Department of Energy
• NGLs (natural gas liquids eg. condensates)
• USGS (US Geological Service)
• IOC (international oil company eg. British Petroleum, ExxonMobil)
• NOC (national oil company eg. Saudi Aramco)
• OPEC (organization of petroleum exporting countries)
• FSU (former Soviet Union)

Well, that should get us started... that's enough for now, already tired...

And a few others...

• WTF (what the fuck)
• SHTF (shit hits the fan
• AFAIK (as far as I know)
• EBAAN (esteemed and beloved Ali Al-Naimi)

Warning..... Meta post

I think that the oil drum is too big for the current setup.
It needs a new layout.

I also think there should be a way for regular posters to do diaries and graphs, and if they are good enough, they can be promoted by the other readers.
This IMHO would increase the number of topics discussed and increase readership and this would equal more advertising dollars for the site.  (More warnings....I know nothing about websites, marketing or layouts, so ignore me if you must)

NOAA  National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

WAG  wild arse guess
SWAG  scientific wild arse guess

IMHO In My Honest Opinion  

IMO the honesty isnt stressed..

You need to stadardize the use of capital letters.  MBPD, or mbpd for example.  Given that MCF is the standard usage for 1,000 cubic feet of gas, I assume that MBD would most commonly be used for thousand barrels per day.  So, would the little "m" be used for million?

HL = Hubbert Linearization

Not acronyms, but since this is an energy blog:

1 hp = .7457 kw = 2546.1 BTU/hr = 178.23 cal(gm)/sec

From Perry's Handbook of Chemical Engineering

Typical Heating Values

Fuel oil #1      137,400  BTU/gal
         #2      139,600
         #3      145,100
         #4      148,800
         #6      152,400

Propane          91,500   BTU/gal
Natural gas       1,035   BTU/SCF
Bituminous Coal  11,500-14,000  BTU/lb
Subbituminous     8,300-11,500
Lignite           6,300-8,300

Coke-oven gas      590    BTU/SCF
Producer gas       150
Water gas          308
Synthetic gas      290

IIRC - if I recall correctly

IMHO - In my humble opinion

IMO -- no humility

ER - Energy Resources, a Yahoo discussion group devoted to Peak Oil issues

ROE2 - Running on Empty 2, another Yahoo Peak Oil board, this one more concerned with grassroots personal preps.

Two guides for the perplexed.

The The Oilfield Glossary: Where the Oil Field Meets the Dictionary from Schlumberger. No acromyms, but many, many terms defined.

A page of Oil Industry Conversions. How to convert between units.

As far as case goes (mbpd vs MBPD), shouldn't an acronym always be upper case? Also,

• FUD (fields under development)
• FOP (fuel oil price)
• FUA (fields under appraisal)
• YTF (yet to find -- a personal favorite, especially in Saudi Arabia's Empty Quarter)
• API (American Petroleum Institute)
• API gravity (scale expressing the gravity or density of liquid petroleum products-- Crude oil is often described in terms of "lightness" or "heaviness" by an index called the API gravity. A high number denotes a "light" crude, and vice versa. Degrees API Gravity= (141.5/Specific Gravity at 60 Deg. F) - 131.5)

Also, a correction. I said for NGL's eg. condensates. But that's wrong. Look here for a correction. Bob G's definition was more correct. Here's a typical use for the Schlumberger glossary for condensate. Things do get complicated sometimes! For example, "all liquids" includes oil, NGLs and condensates in the usual usage. This will include further types of liquids including CTL and GTL as these go into wide-scale production.

Oh my, how could I have forgot NIMBY -- Not In My Backyard

This is a great idea. As a long time lurker I have started to frequent TOD more often but found the almost endless usage of acronyms frustrating. Being a mining major from CSM in the '70's I was somewhat familiar with the oil patch (at a very rudimentary level) from friends who majored in PE but quickly got lost in the more in depth articles that appear here.

Now the Longwall Mining article made perfect sense :)

I recommend  http://www.acronymfinder.com/

TEOTWAWKI - The End of the World as We Know It (and I feel fine)

Becoming more common as NIMBY is found wanting and likely to stand in the way of efforts to provide renewable alternatives - BANANA (planning) Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anybody

I'm not sure if it is the same as LNG, but many cars here in NZ in the 80s ran on CNG (Compressed Natural Gas).

Also, here in NZ we fill up our barbeque cyclinders with LPG, but you folks in the US refer to this as "Butane", is that correct?

Also, how about a quick definition of the various hydrocarbon molecules. E.g. NG=Methane, LPG=Butane, Petrol=Octane(?), etc.

NYMEX - New York Merchantile EXchange (?)

As this is also an open thread, I'd like to ask a different question.

Does anyone know of any websites that detail what some city councils are doing to mitigate the effects of Peak Oil.

I've done a bit of a search, but the trouble is these councils don't usually mention the fact that they are doing these things because of Peak Oil.  Most just seem to talk about energy efficiency, and that makes it more difficult to narrow the search.

I'm interested in putting together a talk for my local council to try and get them to start thinking about the issues. It would be good to include what other councils are doing.

Coversion ratios
Distance: kilometre, mile
Mass: pound, kilo, metric ton, tonne
Volume: US gallon, Brit gallon, litre, cubic foot, barrel
Speed: mph, kph, knot, metres per second
Energy: BTU, joule, kilowatt-hour
Power: horsepower, watt
Pressure: psi, bar, atmosphere, pascal
Fuel consumption: mpg, km per 10L
Energy density:  BTU/gallon, joules/kilogram
Power to weight: hp per pound, kw per kilogram

Gonna do a little post on my homeland:

I've seen a lot anxiety here at TOD about Russia's future oil export capacity due to growth in domestic use.

Even though it has been said that Moscow's population has grown recently by 30%, taken as a whole, Russia's population has decreased by 7% in the past 15 years.

Source:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,1674948,00.html

So even with a growing economy, IMHO, its possible to keep oil consumtion relatively flat in the years to come.

Related: it would help if there a units conversion program available here at TOD - energy, power, length, area, volume, etc. Energy equivalents. Perhaps if it were table driven, it could be open to some TOD members to updating it.

If I were younger and more energetic, I'd volunteer do it myself. But I passed peak quite a while ago.

The acronym sidebar/glossary has long been needed on TOD.  Thanks Stormy for your input, and Prof Goose for reacting so quickly.

Helpful thread.

While not acronyms, maybe someone could add definitions/overview of the various types of reseves and measurements? There's a great deal of discussion about reserve reports, and this would help clarify the discussion.

Thanks

If we must have acronyms, here is a useful one I invented: DUET for Deep Universal Eternal Truth.

Here is an example of a DUET, in my translation from the Latin. Speaking of politics, a famous Roman said, "The people want to be decieved. [Hence] Let them be deceived."

Empirical observation has shown that people who win high political office in the U.S. adhere to this DUET without exception.

For example,
Woodrow Wilson: "There is such a thing as being too proud to fight."
F.D.R.: examples too numerous to even begin listing, especially relating to the Great Depression and to the certainty that if he were elected in 1940 the U.S. would most certainly not become involved in World War II.

and on it goes . . . .

How many of you think Hilary Clinton, the great fearless liberal, will advocate a stiff tax on gasoline?

In democratic politics, the way to get power is to promise people what they want in a convincing way. As Nixon said, "Once you learn to fake sincerity, the rest is easy."

These fatal flaws in democracy were recognized and clearly explained by both Plato and Aristotle. The well-educated founders of the U.S.A. knew that anything resembling a pure democracy would be fatally flawed, and hence they designed a Constitution that had as many elements of aristocracy and oligarchy in it as it did of democracy. As models they ingeniously used both the Roman Repubic and also, to some extent, some elements found in the great confederacy of Iroquois nations. Of course our political system today is nothing at all like that envisioned by Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, Franklin, etc.

Democracy degenerates to mobocracy and rule of the lawyers, by the lawyers and for the lawyers. Unfortunately, our form of government is fatally flawed now and does not function well at any level, from the Federal right down to local school boards. In a crisis situation such as World War II, we drop democracy, go to authoritarian rule and create magnificent achievements such as the Manhatten project. With business as usual, I suggest that as individuals we recognize that there are not enough life boats aboard the Titanic and that there are going to be a great many Darwin awards handed out during the next twenty years.

SAGD - Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage
TD - Terminal Depth
PDC - Polycrystalline Diamond Cutter

Some definitions:

http://www.spe.org/spe/jsp/basic/0,,1104_3306579,00.html

and a few building energy abbreviations:

HVAC, or HVA/C = Heating, Ventilating and Air-Conditioning
U = Thermal conductivity of a building assembly
R = Thermal resistance of a material

FUD also = Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt

Did anyone mention:
GIGO = Garbage In, Garbage Out
GUT = Grand, Unified Theory

Steam assisted gravity drainage is presumbly when you pump steam down an oil well full of heavy oil, it condenses at the bottom to water, liberating heat, which makes the thick (heavy) oil liquify and flow down through the pores of the rock to the bottom where you can suck it up through another oil well. Also sometimes called "Huff and Puff". Kern oil field is heavy oil and is depleting rather slowly. We found it in 1880 or around then and are still getting oil out. That works out to a depletion rate of less than one percent.