The United Kingdom has a large petroleum industry many of the people who work in that industry are members of SPE (Society of Petroleum Engineers). It is noteworthy that neither SPE nor any other body devoted to petroleum extraction is a member of the [United Kingdom] Engineering Council (See http://www.engc.org.uk/institutions/institutions.aspx). I must of course declare an interest I am a member of the British Computer Society and through it am registered as a Chartered Engineer by the Engineering Council.
_____ From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Pat Naughtin Sent: 08 March 2008 19:52 To: U.S. Metric Association Cc: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:40524] Re: Oil pricing by the barrel Dear Jason, It makes a lot of sense to sell all petroleum products by the tonne rather than by the litre or the cubic metre. In fact, it could be argued that this is already done when you apply density factors to volume measures you are already converting volume to mass. The mathematics might look like this: litres x kilograms ÷ litre = kilograms cubic metres x kilograms ÷ cubic metre = kilograms This is important as there are at least 450 different types of crude oil (see: http://www.etc-cte.ec.gc.ca/databases/Oilproperties/Default.aspx ) and each of these has a particular density that varies quite markedly with temperature. (Say 890 kilograms per cubic metre at 15 °C and 910 kg/m^3 at 0 °C means a difference of a bit about 2 %). However petroleum engineers will probably not choose to use the simple (SI) solution anytime soon as they know full well that their jobs are largely about converting from one set of units to another. In addition they perpetrate the jargon(s) of their industry as much as they can (See: http://www.bunkerworld.com/technical/tech_density_2.htm for a light taste of the flavor of their jargon). They intuitively know that their jobs depend on their understanding of the jargon and on their numerical skill, and that their power in their organisation derives in large part from their conversion skills. See http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=145624 to get a feel for this (enormously costly) situation. As I have said before http://www.metricationmatters.com/docs/CostOfNonMetrication.pdf this sort of discussion does not come cheaply. By the way, I have friends who believe that it is better to buy fuel in the morning, when its temperature is lower, as they believe that the greater density of the colder fuel gives them more value for their money. Cheers, Pat Naughtin PO Box 305 Belmont 3216, Geelong, Australia Phone: 61 3 5241 2008 Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has helped thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the modern metric system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they now save thousands each year when buying, processing, or selling for their businesses. Pat provides services and resources for many different trades, crafts, and professions for commercial, industrial and government metrication leaders in Asia, Europe, and in the USA. Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google, NASA, NIST, and the metric associations of Canada, the UK, and the USA. See http://www.metricationmatters.com/ for more metrication information, contact Pat at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or to get the free 'Metrication matters' newsletter go to: http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter/ to subscribe. On 2008/03/09, at 2:42 AM, Jason Darfus wrote: China does, and I think Russia too, price it by the tonne. On 07 Mar 2008, at 18:38, Pierre Abbat wrote: On Friday 07 March 2008 02:07, Pat Naughtin wrote: Is there anyone who reports the price of oil per litre or per tonne? I've been in Brazil, and they report oil in barrels there. Pierre
