Oil and Gas 101

Measuring Energy

Different types of energy are measured by different physical units:

• Barrels or Gallons for Petroleum
• Cubic Feet for Natural Gas
• Tons for Coal
• Kilowatt-hours for electricity

Common Abbreviations

• Bbl = barrel
• b/d = barrels per day
• Mcf = thousand cubic feet
• MMcf = million cubic feet
• Bcf = billion cubic feet
• Tcf = trillion cubic feet
• BTU = British Thermal Unit
• NGL = Natural Gas liquids
• LPG = Liquefied Petroleum Gases

Energy Conversions

1 Barrel of Crude Oil =

• 42 gallons
• 5,800,000 BTU of energy
• 5,614 cubic feet of natural gas
• 0.22 ton of bituminous coal

1 Metric Ton of Crude Oil =

• 2,204 pounds
• 7.46 barrels of domestic crude oil
• 6.99 barrels of foreign crude oil

One cubic foot of Natural Gas =

• 7.48 gallons
• 1,027 BTU of energy
• 0.000178 barrel of crude oil
• .00004 ton of bituminous coal

One cubic meter of Natural Gas =

• 35.314 cubic feet

Crude Oil Conversion Factors