The Energy & Biodiversity Initiative
EBI Glossary
ADAPTIVE MANAGEMENT: A continuous spiral
where objectives are set, actions to manage natural
resources are taken, monitoring and evaluation of the
affected ecosystem and human responses are assessed,
results are compared against expectations, and future
actions are adjusted, with each iteration of activity based
on past experience. Such management is adaptive,
because lessons learned are put in practice in the next
cycle.
APPRAISAL WELL: A well or wells drilled to follow
up a hydrocarbon discovery and evaluate its extent and
commercial potential.
BARREL (BBL): Measure of crude oil equal to 42 U.S.
gallons, 35 Imperial gallons, 159 liters or 5.615 cubic feet.
BARREL OF OIL EQUIVALENT (BOE): For
liquids, one BOE equals one barrel of oil or liquefied
natural gas (LNG). For gases, one BOE equals
approximately 6,000 standard cubic feet (MSCF) of gas.
One BOE of gas or liquid equals about 6 million Btu.
BASE CAMP: Area that houses workers while in the
field, including kitchen facilities, medical clinic, sanitary
facilities, water treatment and supply, warehouse and
equipment maintenance areas and other infrastructure.
BENCHMARKING: Measuring something (e.g.
performance or a product) according to specified
standards in order to compare it with similar items and
improve one’s own product or performance.
BIOLOGICAL COMMUNITY: The group of animals or
plants living together in the same environment.
BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY (often shortened as
Biodiversity): The variability among living organisms
from all sources including, inter alia, terrestrial,
marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological
complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity
within species, between species, and of ecosystems (U.N.
Convention on Biological Diversity, Article 2).
BIOLOGICAL INTEGRITY: The capacity to support
and maintain an integrated, adaptive community with
a biological composition and functional organization
comparable to those of the natural systems of the region.
Also, the measure of a system’s wholeness, including
presence of all appropriate elements and occurrence of
all processes at appropriate rates. Unlike diversity, which
can be expressed simply as the number of kinds of items,
integrity refers to conditions under little or no influence
from human actions; a biota with high integrity reflects
natural evolutionary and biogeographic processes.
BIOLOGICAL RESOURCES: Genetic resources,
organisms or parts thereof, populations, or any other
biotic component of ecosystems with actual or potential
use or value for humanity. Unlike non-living resources,
biological resources are renewable if conserved and
destructible if not conserved.
BIOREGION: A part of the Earth’s surface whose rough
boundaries are determined by natural rather than human
dictates, distinguishable from other areas by attributes
of flora, fauna, water, climate, soils, and land-forms, and
the human settlements and cultures those attributes have
nurtured.
BIOTECHNOLOGY: Any technological application that
uses biological systems, living organisms or derivatives
thereof, to make or modify products or processes for
specific use.
BLOCK: A designated area of land or offshore acreage
leased to a company for oil or gas exploitation. Blocks
are typically granted to companies after a competitive
bidding process for a limited period of time (e.g. five
years) in which a work program must be carried out or
the rights to the block will be lost.