There are measures familiar to us from childhood and used everywhere: liter, meter, kilogram. And there are those that we learn about indirectly - for example, in the reading process. These are pounds and miles, pounds and arshins. There are also barrels - this word, which means volumes, is regularly flashed in stock summaries, when announcing oil prices. A legitimate question arises: how many liters are there in a barrel of oil?
Before trying to express a barrel in liters, you need to understand what this term means.
To the history of the issue
Translated from English, "barrel" is a barrel. Barrels have long transported alcohol, bulk and other materials. As oil production developed , it was also transported in these tanks, and the shipped goods were also considered in barrels - barrels.
But this way of counting was not very convenient. Firstly, all the barrels could be of different sizes, which made accounting difficult. And secondly, various materials transported in the same barrels differed significantly in their weight. That is, the concept of “barrel” had to be somehow brought to other units of measurement - in other words, to standardize.
Russian "barrel"
By the way, measuring something in barrels is a long-standing Russian tradition. However, why be surprised? Before the advent of tanks and special containers, barrels were the most convenient, and sometimes the only means of transportation. And the same problem arose - to concretize this concept. The measured or fortieth barrel was 40 buckets (the Russian “barrel” in liters was approximately 492) and was considered the unit of capacity for alcohol, linseed or hemp oil. In the beer barrel, 10 buckets were placed, in Riga - a little more than 12.5. Resin or gunpowder, also stored in barrels, was already a measure of weight, not volume. A barrel of gunpowder weighed 10 pounds, and with a resin - about 9.
About the metric system
If you turn to history or, moreover, to leaf through books published once in different countries, the reader will be confused by the abundance of various measures. Feet, leagues, inches, miles, dozens of European terms, units used in the countries of the East - all this with difficulty gave in not only to accounting, but also to understanding. The lack of standards and the ambiguity of individual concepts caused considerable difficulty. The conversion of some units to others was also difficult. As the need for a certain uniformity, an international metric system of units (SI) was developed, using kilograms and meters, as well as their derivatives. This system has gained worldwide recognition, although approaches to it vary in some places.
True, there are several countries where the metric system is not officially adopted. In particular, such states include the United States. And this fact turned out to be important for a number of special measurements. For example, the dimensions of compact discs, diagonals of TVs , etc., are commonly measured in inches all over the world. A departure from the metric system is also observed in civil aviation, navigation - the old terms “feet” and “miles” are still used here. The barrel is not a metric unit.
Barrel as a measure of volume
Sometimes, after hearing about a certain number of barrels, we try to translate the result into tons. This action, although quite real with knowledge of the specific gravity of the material, is still not too correct. Barrels characterize volume, and tons characterize weight. It is much more logical to convert barrels to more familiar volume units, for example, to find out how many liters are in a barrel? In fact - how much?
The answer to this question is not unambiguous, as is the ambiguous concept of "barrel". For example, an English barrel in liters will be 163.65. However, this value has repeatedly changed. The volume of the English barrel depended on what exactly was measured in barrels (beer or ale), and also differed in different years. In the mid-15th century, the beer barrel in liters was 166.36, and starting in 1824 - 163.66.
But 1 barrel in liters can be 119.24 if we are talking about American wine. The concept of "barrel" is inextricably linked with other, also not related to metric, measures of volume - gallons and hogshead. In the United States, when measuring beer volumes, a barrel will be 31 gallons, but for other types of liquids, the figure will be different - 31.5 gallons (0.5 hogshead). In the case of measuring bulk, the answer to the question of how many liters per barrel is 115.6 (this is the value of the so-called dry barrel).
About the oil barrel
And yet, most often, the term “barrel” is applied to the extraction and transportation of oil. The concept of an oil barrel goes far into the past: man has been producing fuel since ancient times. There was no single container for transporting this product, some used wooden barrels, and some did use wineskins. But the rapid growth of oil production in the 19th century raised the question of the appearance of a more suitable container. Moreover, in the presence of different capacities, it is inconvenient to carry out trade and transport calculations, and it was advisable to set the price of oil based on one barrel.
In 1866, a meeting of several independent oil producers took place in Pennsylvania (America). Among other problems they discussed was the issue of standard containers for oil supplies. The meeting resulted in the negotiation of a standard barrel representing a 42 gallon volume. How much is it in more familiar measures? 1 barrel of oil in liters will be 149.
Why 42 gallons?
But why is such a volume taken as the basis? The fact is that by the beginning of the 18th century, sealed barrels of wood with a volume of 42 gallons actually became standard for transportation. Such containers transported fish and fat, molasses and wine, as well as other goods. Barrels of this size were optimal in their own way: not too large and not too small, well placed on barges and platforms available at that time. Moreover, one person was able to lift and move such a barrel filled with oil.
Therefore, the choice of the American oil industry was quite understandable and justified. In 1872, a 42-gallon barrel was officially approved by the American Petroleum Association. And although now no one is transporting oil in barrels (there are tankers and oil pipelines for this), but a barrel is still a unit of measure in the world practice of oil products trade.
About the benefits of a barrel
But wasn’t it more convenient to measure the extracted oil in tons, as they measure coal and grain, metal and fertilizers? One of the reasons for the unpopularity of tons is the different density of oil; for the main Russian varieties, its value can vary from 820 to 905.5 kg per cubic meter. The weight of each unit of its volume changes in a similar way. And if you answer the question of what a barrel of oil in liters is, you can absolutely accurately, it’s already difficult to find out its weight.
So the measurement of oil produced and sold in volumes, and not by weight, is much more convenient. If we take into account the fact that oil is usually transported using tankers and tanks, pumped through pipelines, the advantage of such a unit as a barrel becomes irrefutable. However, in the domestic Russian market, in contrast to the world market, oil is traded in tons, so it is still necessary to convert volumes to weight and vice versa. Here it is already necessary to take into account the brand of oil and its density, and also special conversion factors are used for calculations.
About the price of oil
But, in what units do not measure the production of "black gold", it is still accepted to pay for oil in dollars per barrel. Moreover, this is one of the dominant indicators, on which depends not only the economy of a country, but also global economic and political development. It is impossible to overestimate the importance of oil for world production, as well as its share in the global fuel balance. As with any other product, the cost of oil depends on the volume of its production and consumption.
And at the same time, the price of oil depends on many other factors. World production is designed in such a way that an increase in the price of “black gold” does not reduce its consumption too much, but a drop in oil production can lead to sharp price spikes. Not surprisingly, the political component is increasingly felt in oil pricing; more and more players appear on the world stage who want to lower or raise the price of fuel, depending on their own interests. By the way, the price of natural gas directly depends on the cost of oil. So in almost all recent military conflicts, the “oil” trail is clearly visible.
And again about the barrel
A barrel is a measure of volume. This, although the most used, but far from the only meaning of the word. A barrel is also one of the terms of poker (card game). The word "Barrel" for some reason has become popular for the name of various objects - from an investment company to a night club.