LemonTrades
TL;DR
- A barrel of crude oil holds 42 US gallons, or about 159 liters.
- US refineries turn it into about 19 to 20 gallons of gasoline, 11 to 13 of diesel and heating oil, and 3 to 5 of jet fuel.
- Because of the 42 gallons, $1 on a barrel works out to about 2.4 cents a gallon.
- LemonTrades tells you what moved oil, and why, within seconds, with alerts on sharp moves.
It’s 42 US gallons, and the number goes back to the first American oil boom.
Why 42 gallons?
In the 1860s, Pennsylvania’s first oil producers shipped crude in whatever wooden barrels they could find, from 40-gallon whiskey barrels to 45-gallon ones, and buyers didn’t trust what they were getting. Around 1866, producers settled on one size: the tierce, an old English wine measure of 42 gallons. Oil rarely travels in actual barrels now, but the measure is still used everywhere.
What one barrel makes
| Product | Gallons from a 42-gallon barrel |
|---|---|
| Gasoline | 19 to 20 |
| Diesel and heating oil | 11 to 13 |
| Jet fuel | 3 to 5 |
| Others | The rest: plastics’ ingredients, asphalt and more |
These are the US Energy Information Administration’s averages. The total usually comes to a little more than 42 gallons, because refined products are less dense than crude and take up more space. The mix shifts with the seasons and with demand.
Barrel conversions
| One barrel of oil equals | |
|---|---|
| US gallons | 42 |
| Liters | About 159 |
| Cubic feet | About 5.6 |
| Metric tons | About 0.136 (roughly 7.3 barrels a ton, varies by oil) |
Why this matters for gas prices
Every $1 change in a barrel works out to about 2.4 cents a gallon. So a $10 drop in oil can take about 24 cents off at the pump over a couple of weeks. See when gas prices might go down. Oil futures trade in 1,000-barrel contracts: see how to trade oil futures.
Sources
Education, not financial advice. See our disclaimer.
