It will be difficult to find a person who has never heard of such a specific unit of measurement as a barrel. At the same time, everyone is well aware of the fact that it is used when measuring the volume of oil. However, one simple, but no less interesting and important question arises here: why do we need a barrel at all, if it would be possible to measure the volume of extracted raw materials in the same liters? After all, it is the metric system of units of measurement that is the most popular today.
The unit for measuring the volume of a liquid, a barrel, existed long before the first oil production began with the help of wells. In translation from English "barrel" literally means "barrel". Today there are several types of barrels and they all (as is very often the case with old units of measurement) have completely different volumes. However, in relation to oil, not any, but a strictly defined "American oil barrel" is applied, the value of which corresponds to 42 gallons or 158.988 liters of raw materials.
There is also another American barrel for alcohol, which is 31.5 gallons. There is also an English unified barrel. It is used to measure both the volume of liquids and the volume of bulk solids. This value corresponds to 163.66 liters. There is also a barrel of its own in France, where it is equal to 225 liters. Moreover, Russia also had its own barrel. It is one of the largest - 492 liters.
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But let's get back directly to the American oil barrel. It has been used since the 19th century. This value came into wide circulation due to the beginning of active oil production in the United States. There is a beautiful legend that barrels of whiskey, which were brought for workers, were allegedly used to transport oil. However, alcohol and oil barrels do not beat in volume, so this is highly unlikely.
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As for the question of why not measure oil in liters, everything is very simple here. This value is much more convenient to use when calculating the volume of raw materials. If you start using liters, then the numbers in the calculation will be 158 times larger, which is not very practical. In addition, in addition to a barrel, conventional tons are actively used in oil production and refining.
Continuing the topic, read about why, if you pierce the side of the tanker, oil will not flow out of it.
A source: https://novate.ru/blogs/300820/55839/