In the oil and gas industry, the term wireline usually refers to a cabling technology used by operators of oil and gas wells to lower equipment or measurement devices into the well for the purposes of well intervention, reservoir evaluation, and pipe recovery.

Tools inserted into the well for both workover and logging efforts, wirelines and slicklines are very similar devices. While a slickline is a thin cable introduced into a well to deliver and retrieve tools downhole, a wireline is an electrical cable used to lower tools into and transmit data about the conditions of the wellbore called wireline logs. Usually consisting of braided cables, wirelines are used to perform wireline logging, as well

Braided line can contain an inner core of insulated wires which provide power to equipment located at the end of the cable, normally referred to as electric line, and provides a pathway for electrical telemetry for communication between the surface and equipment at the end of the cable.