Miscellaneous > The Lounge
Should the US government do anything about the financial crisis?
SiMuLaCrUm:
Yea, I never could see why they measure it all in barrels.
worker201:
US oil and gas companies use barrel of oil equivalents (BOE) to make their energy accounting easier. Since oil is a liquid and gas is a gas, the volumes don't add up right. And their energy content per volume is also quite different. So they convert the gas to BOE. According to the US IRS, 1 BOE is equal to 5.8x10^6 BTUs. The Wikipedia article linked above converts gas and coal to BBOE, which is billion BOE.
If I were to tell you that world energy reserves were:
oil - 1371 billion barrels
gas - 6381 trillion cubic feet
coal - 997748 million short tons
that wouldn't do you much good, would it? I guess we could come up with some bullshit equation that would convert barrels of oil to short tons of coal, but there's no reason, since apparently someone has done all the work of converting coal and gas to barrels. If you want to work out the BTUs for yourself, that's fine, but if you look at the BBOE, it gives you the same picture of proportion and scale.
SiMuLaCrUm:
Ah, so it is just used as a standard of measurement.
WMD:
--- Quote from: worker201 on 31 October 2008, 02:28 ---But back to the original point, a little pressure helps a lot. We had hybrid cars before gas prices went up, but they were expensive and unpopular. Now everybody wants one, every manufacturer is making them, and SUV and Hummer sales are way down. All because gas prices were artificially high for a few months. Probably, some of the newer models will be phased out if gas prices stabilize at a low level.
--- End quote ---
But what's a "low level?" Gas will probably never go back down to $1 a gallon. It's still above $2.50 here in Florida, and that still won't sell many Hummers.
Also, if you like conspiracy theories...the price of gas will probably go back up after the presidental election. ;)
Aloone_Jonez:
--- Quote from: worker201 on 2 November 2008, 01:32 ---US oil and gas companies use barrel of oil equivalents (BOE) to make their energy accounting easier. Since oil is a liquid and gas is a gas, the volumes don't add up right. And their energy content per volume is also quite different. So they convert the gas to BOE. According to the US IRS, 1 BOE is equal to 5.8x10^6 BTUs. The Wikipedia article linked above converts gas and coal to BBOE, which is billion BOE.
If I were to tell you that world energy reserves were:
oil - 1371 billion barrels
gas - 6381 trillion cubic feet
coal - 997748 million short tons
that wouldn't do you much good, would it? I guess we could come up with some bullshit equation that would convert barrels of oil to short tons of coal, but there's no reason, since apparently someone has done all the work of converting coal and gas to barrels. If you want to work out the BTUs for yourself, that's fine, but if you look at the BBOE, it gives you the same picture of proportion and scale.
--- End quote ---
That makes sense.
I can't stand imperial measurements though. I wish everyone would adopt metric, it would make life much easier.
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