Well control
Fluid is any substance that flows; e.g. oil, water, gas, and ice are all examples of fluids. Under extreme pressure and temperature almost anything will become fluid.
Fluid exerts pressure and this pressure is as a result of the density and the height of the fluid column. Most oil companies usually represent density measurement in pounds per gallon (ppg) or kilograms per cubic meter (kg/m) and pressure measurement in pounds per square inch (psi) or bar or pascal (Pa). Pressure increases as the density of the fluid increases.
To find out the amount of pressure a fluid of a known density exerts for each unit of length, the pressure gradient is used.
A pressure gradient is defined as the pressure increase per unit of the depth due to its density and it is usually measured in pounds per square inch per foot or bars per meter.It is expressed mathematically as;
"pressure gradient = fluid density × conversion factor".
The conversion factor used to convert density to pressure is 0.052 in English system and 0.0981 in Metric system.
Gas
Since gas molecules can move freely within a container, their mass is normally characterized by density. Density is the amount of mass per unit volume of a substance, or the inverse of specific volume. For gases, the density can vary over a wide range because the particles are free to move closer together when constrained by pressure or volume. This variation of density is referred to as compressibility. Like pressure and temperature, density is a state variable of a gas and the change in density during any process is governed by the laws of thermodynamics. For a static gas, the density is the same throughout the entire container. Density is therefore a scalar quantity. It can be shown by kinetic theory that the density is "inversely" proportional to the size of the container in which a fixed mass of gas is confined. In this case of a fixed mass, the density decreases as the volume increases.