Glossary
Roustabout Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential roustabout terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key roustabout vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in roustabout training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- Backfill
- Filling a trench back in.
- Flowline
- A pipe from a well to a battery.
- H2S
- Toxic hydrogen sulfide gas.
- JSA
- Job safety analysis.
- Lease
- A site where oil or gas is produced.
- Pipe dope
- Thread compound for pipe joints.
- Pumpjack
- A pumping unit that lifts oil.
- Rig down
- Taking equipment down.
- Rig up
- Setting up equipment.
- Rotation
- A schedule of days on and off.
- SafeLand
- Oil and gas safety orientation.
- The right to stop unsafe work.
- Swamper
- A helper who rides with truck drivers.
- Tank battery
- Tanks that store produced fluids.
- Wellhead
- Equipment at the top of a well.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Roustabout practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Roustabout training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.