mousehole

1. An opening in the rig floor near the rotary table, but between the rotary table and the
vee-door, that enables rapid connections while drilling. The mousehole is usually fitted
underneath with a length of casing, usually with a bottom. A joint of drillpipe that will be
used next in the drilling operation is placed in the mousehole, box end up, by the rig crew at
a convenient time (immediately after the previous connection is made). When the bit drills
down and the kelly is near the rotary table, another piece of drillpipe must be added for
drilling to continue. This next piece of pipe is standing in the mousehole when the kelly is
screwed onto it. Then the kelly and the joint of pipe in the mousehole are raised to remove
the pipe from the mousehole, the mousehole pipe screwed onto the rest of the drillstring,
and the drillstring lowered, rotated, and pumped through to continue drilling. Another piece
of pipe is put in the mousehole to await the next connection.

rathole
1. A storage place for the kelly, consisting of an opening in the rig floor fitted with a piece of
casing with an internal diameter larger than the outside diameter of the kelly, but less than
that of the upper kelly valve so that the kelly may be lowered into the rathole until the upper
kelly valve rests on the top of the piece of casing.

2. (no aplica en tu contexto en particular) Extra hole drilled at the end of the well (beyond
the last zone of interest) to ensure that the zone of interest can be fully evaluated. The
logging tool string may be as much as 120 ft [36.5 m] in length, so the rathole allows tools
at the top of the logging string to reach and measure the deepest zone of interest. In
addition, there is usually a small amount of extra hole drilled to allow for junk, hole fill-in and
other conditions that may reduce the effective depth of the well prior to running logging
tools.
3. (no aplica en tu contexto en particular) Extra hole drilled at the bottom of the hole to
leave expendable completion equipment, such as the carriers for perforating gun charges.