Billion cubic meters of natural gas (abbreviated: bcm) or cubic kilometer of natural gas is a measure of

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 ...

production and trade. Some definitions cite volume, others energy content. Dependant of implied standards, this measure may represent different value of energy content. According to the standard defined by the International Energy Agency, it corresponds in average to of energy in the case of Russian natural gas and of energy in the case of Qatar's natural gas.

Volume based definitions

According to the standard defined by the International Energy Agency, the gas physical volume is used, which is measured at the temperature of at atmospheric pressure. According to the Russian standard, the gas volume is measured at . That means that 1 billion cubic metres of natural gas by the International Energy Agency standard is equivalent to 1.017 billion cubic metres of natural gas by the Russian standard.

Energy based definitions

Some other organizations use energy equivalent-based standards. BP uses a standard which is equivalent to per billion cubic metres. Cedigaz uses a standard which is equivalent to per billion cubic metres.

References

{{Reflist Natural gas Units of volume Units of energy Non-SI metric units International Energy Agency BP