THE NORTH FIELD

A16

Why BBL? … and why is oil measured in barrels anyway?

No one actually buys a barrel of oil … it’s not even transported in barrels! … so why is oil measured that way?

The first oil that was pumped in the early oil fields in Pennsylvania in the 1860s was stored in any type of vessel or jar that could be found, which made it extremely difficult to judge what quantity you bought or sold since every jar was a different size. As the oil industry grew, explorers needed to find a way to transport it around the country. Inspiration came from the whiskey industry which transported their golden liquid in wooden barrels of a standard size, 40 gallons.

Rather than re-invent the wheel, the oil producers took the idea for themselves, and so the 40 gallon barrel was created - plus an extra 2 gallons that were added to oil barrels to cover spillages on route to their destinations.

This was revolutionary since it allowed the purchasers of oil to know exactly how much of the stuff they were buying at one time, which was pivotal to the development of the industry.

But why is barrel abbreviated as bbl? One theory is that bbl actually stands

for Blue Barrel – hence the double B used in the acronym. The Blue Barrel

originated with the Standard Oil Company owned by the Rockefeller family,

who used blue barrels to transport their crude … although some believe that

the double B originated from the two extra gallons included in each barrel to

cover any spills or evaporation. Either way, the abbreviation BBL has stuck.