barrel of oil equivalent

boe standard definition

1 barrel of oil equivalent (boe) equals 5.8 million BTU (International Table definition) — a US/IRS convention — which is 6,119,323,945.196 joules (about 6.12 GJ), derived from the BTU value in NIST Special Publication 811. This is an energy-equivalence unit, not a physical 42-gallon barrel (that's the separate 'barrel' volume unit) and not the measured energy content of any specific batch of crude oil. boe is convention-dependent, not a fixed physical constant — other conventions exist, e.g. the USGS uses 6,000 standard cubic feet of gas = 1 boe, and the IEA uses roughly 7.15–7.40 boe per toe. Results always state which convention (here, '5.8 million BTU') is being used.

Definition

Dimension: Energy
Symbols: boe
System: convention
Base factor: ×6119323945.196
Exactness: standard definition

Fixed by a published standard or convention (toe, therm, IT cal/BTU).

Also known as

boesbarrels of oil equivalentBOE

Sources

Common conversions

for 1 boe

joule	6,119,323,945.196	J	standard definition
kilojoule	6,119,323.945196	kJ	standard definition
megajoule	6,119.323945196	MJ	standard definition
gigajoule	6.119323945196	GJ	standard definition
kilowatt hour	~1,699.81	kWh	standard definition
megawatt hour	~1.69981	MWh	standard definition
British thermal unit	5,800,000	BTU	standard definition
million British thermal units	5.8	MMBTU	standard definition
therm (US)	58	therm	standard definition
tonne of oil equivalent	~0.146158	toe	standard definition

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Barrel vs boe A physical barrel is a volume; a “barrel of oil equivalent” (boe) is a fixed energy convention. They are not the same thing.toe and oil-equivalent units toe, tce and boe are energy-equivalence conventions, exact by fiat — not measurements of any real oil or coal.