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.
Vertical pressure variation
Whether or not density and gravity can be reasonably approximated as constant depends on the level of accuracy needed, but also on the length scale of height difference, as gravity and density also decrease with higher elevation. For density in particular, the fluid in question is also relevant; seawater, for example, is considered an incompressible fluid; its density can vary with height, but much less significantly than that of air. Thus water's density can be more reasonably approximated as constant than that of air, and given the same height difference, the pressure differences in water are approximately equal at any height.