Barrel of Oil - What's in it?

Crude oil is sold between countries in quantities called barrels. (The same measurement is used to sell whisky.)

One barrel of oil is the same as:

• 159 litres (about 80 large fizzy drink bottle)
• 35 gallons (enough to fit in the petrol tanks of about 4 cars)
• 280 pints (a lot of bottles of milk)

The weight of a barrel depends on where the oil comes from. However, there are about 8 barrels in a tonne.

You could fit nearly 2 million barrels of oil into a football stadium - or one and a half tankers. This is how much oil we use in the UK every day.

Most gasoline is made from crude oil, formed from the remains of plants and animals that lived hundreds of millions of years ago. These remains were covered with layers of sediment over time. With extreme pressure and high temperatures over millions of years, these remains became the mix of liquid hydrocarbons (an organic chemical compound of hydrogen and carbon) that we call crude oil. Refineries break down these hydrocarbons into different products. These “refined products” include gasoline, diesel fuel, heating oil, jet fuel, liquefied petroleum gases, residual fuel oil, and many other products.

The largest share of the 42 gallons of crude oil contained in a standard barrel ends up as finished motor gasoline. Motor gasoline accounts for 19.65 gallons of the finished product. Next in line is distillate fuel oil at 10.03 gallons. Jet fuel comes in a rather distant third place in the refinement process. Of the original 42 gallons of crude oil in a barrel, that portion which will end up as jet fuel is 4.07 gallons. Residual fuel oil accounts for 1.72 gallons of the overall refined product.

Other petroleum products that are created from a barrel of oil during the refining process include: still gas, petroleum coke, liquefied refinery gas, asphalt and road oil, various oils for foodstocks, lubricants, special napthas, kerosene, waxes and an assortment of other miscellaneous products. (It is important to note that the different end products that can be produced from a barrel of oil differ in their percentages depending on what part of the world the crude oil originated from in the first instance.)