The barrel of oil equivalent (BOE) is a
unit of energy
Energy is defined via work, so the SI unit of energy is the same as the unit of work – the joule (J), named in honour of James Prescott Joule and his experiments on the mechanical equivalent of heat. In slightly more fundamental terms, is ...
based on the approximate energy released by burning one
barrel (, or ) of
crude oil. The BOE is used by oil and gas companies in their financial statements as a way of combining
oil
An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...
and
natural gas
Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...
reserves and production into a single measure, although this energy equivalence does not take into account the lower financial value of energy in the form of gas.
The U.S.
Internal Revenue Service defines a BOE as equal to 5.8 million
BTU
The British thermal unit (BTU or Btu) is a unit of heat; it is defined as the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one pound of water by one degree Fahrenheit. It is also part of the United States customary units. The modern SI u ...
. (, about
Higher_heating_value">HHV.html" ;"title="Higher_heating_value.html" ;"title="/nowiki>Higher heating value">HHV">Higher_heating_value.html" ;"title="/nowiki>Higher heating value">HHV/nowiki>, or about .) The value is necessarily approximate as various grades of oil and gas have slightly different heating values. If one considers the lower heating value instead of the higher heating value, the value for one BOE would be approximately 5.4 GJ (see tonne of oil equivalent
The tonne of oil equivalent (toe) is a unit of energy defined as the amount of energy released by burning one tonne of crude oil. It is approximately 42 gigajoules or 11.630 megawatt-hours, although as different crude oils have different calorifi ...
). Typically or 58 Therm, CCF are equivalent to one BOE. The United States Geological Survey, USGS gives a figure of of typical natural gas.
A commonly used multiple of the BOE is the Metric system, kilo barrel of oil equivalent (kboe or kBOE), which is 1,000 BOE. This should be avoided because it might lead to the use of MBOE (mega
Mega or MEGA may refer to:
Science
* mega-, a metric prefix denoting 106
* Mega (number), a certain very large integer in Steinhaus–Moser notation
* "mega-" a prefix meaning "large" that is used in taxonomy
* Gravity assist, for ''Moon-Eart ...
barrel of oil equivalent) but MBOE actually means thousand BOE. This potential confusion arises due to the use of Roman numeral M (one thousand) for natural gas production and MM (one million, even though MM means two thousand). In the S.I. (metric system) M means million, but cubic feet and barrels are not S.I. units, so S.I. prefixes should not be used. Another commonly used multiple is million barrels eqivalent per day, MMboed (or MMBOED, MMboepd, where MM denotes a million), used to measure daily production and consumption, and the BBOe (also BBOE) or billion barrels of oil equivalent, representing 109 barrels of oil, used to measure petroleum reserves
Oil and gas reserves denote ''discovered'' quantities of crude oil and natural gas (oil or gas fields) that can be profitably produced/recovered from an approved development. Oil and gas reserves tied to approved operational plans filed on the ...
.
Metric regions commonly use the tonne of oil equivalent
The tonne of oil equivalent (toe) is a unit of energy defined as the amount of energy released by burning one tonne of crude oil. It is approximately 42 gigajoules or 11.630 megawatt-hours, although as different crude oils have different calorifi ...
(toe), or more often million toe (Mtoe). Since this is a measurement of mass, any conversion to barrels of oil equivalent depends on the density of the oil in question, as well as the energy content. Typically 1 tonne of oil has a volume of . The United States EIA suggests 1 toe has an average energy value of .Conversion Factors
retrieved 16 October 2008
See also
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* {{annotated link, Tonne of oil equivalent
References
Petroleum economics
Units of energy
Equivalent units