Barrel (unit)

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See Barrel (disambiguation) for other uses.

The barrel (abbreviated bbl) is the name of several units of measurement.

Oil barrel: 42 U.S. gallons, 158.9873 litres<ref name=NistB>NIST Guide to SI Units</ref>, or 35 Imperial gallons.

This is used for crude oil or other petroleum products. The measurement originated in the early Pennsylvania oil fields. Both the 42-gallon barrels (based on the old English wine measure, the tierce) and the 40-gallon (151.4 liters) whiskey barrels were used. The 40-gallon barrel was the most common size early, but companies often underfilled them with less. However, the Standard Oil Company shipped its oil in barrels that always contained exactly 42 gallons. Customers began to refuse to accept anything less and by 1866 the oil barrel was standardized at 42 gallons. Since Standard Oil painted its barrels blue, it was abbreviated "bbl" for "blue barrel". The Standard Oil monopoly was broken up into 34 different companies in 1911 and oil has not been shipped in barrels for a very long time<ref name=Slate>Slate Does Oil Really Come in Barrels?</ref>, but today the "blue barrel" is still the standard unit for measurement and pricing of oil.

UK beer barrel: 36 UK gallons (163.7 L)
US beer barrel: 31 U.S. gallons (117.3 L), the result of tax law definitions.
US non-beer liquid barrel: 31.5 U.S. gallons (119.2 L), half a hogshead.
US dry barrel: 105 dry quarts (115.6 L).

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