spudding

1. (drilling) The initial drilling of a well; a test drilling.Examples: "From these spuddings the approximate percentage loss of capacity can be estimated, but no reliable volume figures are obtained because the exact location of the spuddings is not known, and the area of the lake is seldom accurately known."; "Of the 21 holes the small consortium drilled, all of them proved to be dry except two promising spuddings in Libya during 1958."; "1998, Society of Petroleum Engineers of AIME, Proceedings [of The] Drilling Conference, page 428, On the first two spuddings a standard rotary bottom hole assembly was used and was unsuccessful because of top hole deviations between 4 and 6 degrees were measured."