We often go about our daily tasks in the petroleum business working with strange measurements and symbols without giving a thought as to how they originated. For instance, how did 42 gallons become the standard for a barrel? And to go a strange step further, how did BBL become the symbol for a barrel of crude oil when a simple BL should have sufficed?
Many years ago after the first oil discovery in 1859, America's earliest oil and gas producers in Pennsylvania decided that a barrel of oil should be set at 42 gallons. Forty-two gallons seemed like the most reasonable size for transportation and for floating down the Allegheny
river. Titusville, Pennsylvania led the entire world in oil production at the time.
Many years ago after the first oil discovery in 1859, America's earliest oil and gas producers in Pennsylvania decided that a barrel of oil should be set at 42 gallons. Forty-two gallons seemed like the most reasonable size for transportation and for floating down the Allegheny
river. Titusville, Pennsylvania led the entire world in oil production at the time.
A 42-gallon barrel weighed 300 pounds when filled with oil. At that time, men, wagons, horses and boats and barrels moved the area’s oil. Pipelines wouldn’t come into play until later. Three-hundred pounds was about as much weight as a man would handle. Twenty would fit on a typical barge or railroad flatcar. Anything bigger was unmanageable, anything smaller was less profitable.
In that day, watertight tierce was a standard container for shipping fish, soap, butter, molasses, wine and whale oil. The 42-gallon barrels were quite familiar for commodity traders before the oil guys claimed it.
Just as a side note, a normal wine cask back in the day held 84 gallons. Today, wine cask capacity depends on the varietal.
Before the oil guys deemed a 42-gallon barrel their vessel of standard choice, they used wooden tierces, whiskey barrels, casks and barrels of all sizes.
In 1872, the 42-gallon standard was officially adopted by the Petroleum Producers Association, and by the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Bureau of Mines in 1882.
The industry soon struggled with finding 42 gallon barrels after the decision was made, so Standard Oil Company began making the 42 gallon oil barrels, which they painted blue.
It wasn’t long before people in the oil and gas industry started referring to the barrels as blue barrels, and thus the abbreviation BBLS came into play.
Today, the oil and gas industry refers to a 42-gallon barrel of any color as a “BBL.”
So now when you are crunching your spreadsheet analytic modeling metrics converting gallons to BBLs, BBLs to metric tons and so on, you will have a greater appreciation for our industry's arcane symbols and measurements.
