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Measuring natural gas and oil quantities – why it’s important

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Aeldra Robinson
Measuring natural gas and oil quantities – why it’s important

Natural gas has become a popular energy source. It is cheaper and more environmentally friendly than many other sources. Because natural gas and oil reserves are often found together and natural gas can also be a by-product of oil extraction, the two sources are often extracted together and by the same company. These two natural reserves are measured in different units. Gas is measured in cubic feet while oil is measured in barrels (gallons or liters). To ease a company’s communication to investors, management and analysts of the amount of gas and/or oil they have produced or have available it is easier to work with one unit. For this reason gas is converted from cubic feet into a barrel measurement.

Understanding the math

Gas is usually measured in MCF (a thousand cubic feet) in the USA. A good average daily production for a natural gas well is 17 500 MCF to 35 300 MCF per day. These numbers differ greatly since onshore or offshore drilling can greatly influence what is considered to be a good average daily production. As these daily productions are fairly large numbers we convert MCF to MMCF (a million cubic feet) meaning that rather than working with numbers in the thousands we can work with numbers that are easier to manage (17.5 – 32.2 MMCF). If the MMCF numbers also become too large to easily deal and calculate with they can be converted to BCF (a billion cubic feet) which would take the average daily production to an approximate 0.02 – 0.03 BCF.

Oil, other than gas, is measure in BOE (barrels of oil equivalent). BOE basically refers to the amount of energy that is released when you burn one barrel of crude oil. If you convert MCF to BOE you will need 6 MCF for 1 BOE. In other words one barrel of oil equivalent is equal to 6000 cubic feet of natural gas. As larger numbers can be used when discussing oil and gas reserves it might be necessary to convert BCF to MMBOE (a million barrels of oil equivalent) where it will still be 6:1.

Why it’s important to understand the math

The oil and gas industry are an essential part of the world’s global economy and contributes significantly to many countries’ GDPs. It is a possibly lucrative industry for future investors to entre but the lingo used in the industry can quickly get the better of you. Once you understand the different measurements used as well as how and why they are converted you are one step closer to understanding the industry.

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Aeldra Robinson
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