Barrel in liters: how many in one liter of barrels

There are measures familiar to us from childhood and usedeverywhere: liter, meter, kilogram. And there are those about which we learn indirectly - for example, in the process of reading. These are pounds and miles, pounds and arshins. There are still barrels - this word, meaning volumes, regularly flashes in stock exchange reports when oil prices are announced. There is a legitimate question: how many liters in 1 barrel of oil?

Before trying to express the barrel in liters, you need to understand what this term means.

To the background

Translated from English, "barrel" is a barrel. Barrels have long transported alcohol, bulk and other materials. With the development of oil production, it also began to be transported in these tanks, and the shipped goods were also counted in barrels - barrels.

But this method of counting was not tooconvenient. First of all, all the barrels could be of different sizes, which made the accounting difficult. And secondly, the various materials transported in identical barrels differed significantly in their weight. That is, the concept of "barrel" had to somehow lead to other units of measurement - in other words, to standardize.

Russian "barrel"

By the way, measuring something in barrels is an oldRussian 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 about 492) and was considered a unit capacity for alcohol, linseed or hemp oil. In the beer barrel placed 10 buckets, in Riga - just over 12.5. Pitch or powder, also stored in barrels, was already a measure of weight, not volume. A barrel of powder weighed 10 pounds, and a resin - about 9.

On the metric system of measures

If you look at the history or more simplyleaf 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 states of the East — all this was not only easy to count, but also understandable. Considerable complexity was caused by the absence of standards, the ambiguity of individual concepts. Difficult was the transfer of some units to others. 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 been recognized all over the world, although approaches to it in some places differ.

True, there are several countries where the metricThe system is not officially accepted. In particular, these countries 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, diagonal televisions, etc., are commonly measured in inches around the world. The departure from the metric system is also observed in civil aviation and navigation - the old terms “feet” and “miles” are still used here. Not a metric unit and barrel.

Barrel as a measure of volume

Sometimes, having heard of a certain number of barrels,we are trying to convert the result to tons. This action, although quite realistic with the knowledge of the specific gravity of the material, is still not very correct. Barrels characterize the volume, and tons - weight. It is much more logical to convert barrels to more usual units of volume, for example, to find out how many liters are in a barrel? In fact - how much?

The answer to this question is not straightforward,as the very notion of a “barrel” is ambiguous. For example, an English barrel in liters will be 163.65. However, this value has also changed several times. The volume of the English barrel depended on what was measured in barrels (beer or ale), and also differed in different years. In the middle of the 15th century, the beer barrel in liters was 166.36, and since 1824 - 163.66.

But 1 barrel in liters can make up 119.24,if we are talking about American wine. The concept of "barrel" is inextricably linked with other, also not related to metric, volume measures - gallons and hogsheads. In the US, when measuring the volume of beer 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 the bulk of the answer to the question of how many liters per barrel, will be 115.6 (this is the value of the so-called dry barrel).

About oil barrel

And yet the most common term is “barrel”apply to the extraction and transportation of oil. The concept of an oil barrel goes far back: fuel has been extracted by man since ancient times. A single container for the transportation of this product did not exist, some used wooden barrels, and some did waterskins. 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 desirable to set the price for oil on the basis of one barrel.

In 1866 in Pennsylvania (America) took placemeeting of several independent oil owners. Among other problems they discussed was the question of standard containers for the supply of oil. The meeting resulted in the harmonization of a standard barrel representing a volume of 42 gallons. How much is this in more familiar measures? 1 barrel of oil in liters will be 149.

Why 42 gallons?

But why such a volume is taken as a basis? The fact is that by the beginning of the 18th century, hermetic 42 gallon wooden barrels had actually become standard for transportation. In such containers transported fish and fat, molasses and wine, as well as other goods. Barrels of this size were optimal in their own way: they were not too large and not too small, they were well placed on the 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 American oil ownerswas quite understandable and justified. In 1872, a 42-gallon barrel was officially approved as a standard in the American Petroleum Manufacturers Association. And although now no one transports oil in barrels (there are tankers and oil pipelines for this), but the barrel is still a unit of measurement in the world practice of trade in petroleum products.

About the benefits of a barrel

But was it not more convenient to measure the oil produced intons, how coal and grain, metal and fertilizers are measured? 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. Similarly, the weight of each unit of its volume changes. And if you answer the question of what constitutes a barrel of oil in liters, you can definitely, then it is already somewhat difficult to recognize its weight.

So the measurement of produced and sold oil involumes, not by weight, much more convenient. If we also take into account the fact that it is customary to transport oil 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 converting volumes into weight and vice versa does happen. Here it is already necessary to take into account the brand of oil and its density, and special conversion factors are also used for the calculations.

About the price of oil

But, in what units do not measure the production of "blackgold ”, it’s still accepted to pay for oil in dollars per barrel. Moreover, it is one of the dominant indicators, on which not only the economy of a country, but also global economic and political development depends. The importance of oil for world production, as well as its share in the global fuel balance, cannot be overemphasized. As is the case with any other commodity, the cost of oil depends on the volume of its production and consumption.

And at the same time, the price of oil depends onof many other factors. World production is built in such a way that a rise in prices for “black gold” does not reduce its consumption too much, but a drop in oil production may lead to sharp price spikes. It is not surprising that the political component is increasingly felt in oil pricing; More and more players are appearing 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” trace is clearly visible.

And again about the barrel

A barrel is a measure of volume. This, though the most used, but far from the only meaning of the word. Barrel is also one of the poker terms (card game). The word "Barrel" for some reason became popular for the name of various objects - from an investment company to a nightclub.