Oil and Gas Capacity Unit Conversions

This article is part of the Global Fossil Infrastructure Tracker, a project of Global Energy Monitor and the Center for Media and Democracy.

Sub-articles:

FrackSwarm portal Coal terminals Coal transport and infrastructure Oil and gas pipelines LNG terminals Pipeline construction costs Methodology and data notes

Background

Oil and gas pipeline capacity measurements are not standardized across fuel types. Often, oil pipelines capacity is measured in barrels of oil equivalent per day (bpd or boe/d) or billion cubic meters per day (bcm/d). Meanwhile, gas pipeline capacity is traditionally reported as million cubic feet of natural gas per day (mmcf/d or mmscf/d). It is useful to have a standard measurement across fuel types to allow for easier comparison between pipelines. This often means converting bpd or bcm/d to mmcf/d.

The primary reference for converting unit measurements for pipeline capacity data in the Global Fossil Projects Tracker (GFPT) is from the Society for Petroleum Engineers.

Conversion Formulas

Barrels of oil equivalent to million cubic feet

1 barrel of oil equivalent (boe) can be converted to million cubic feet of natural gas (mmcf) by multiplying the boe times the conversion factor 5,658.53 and dividing the result by 1 million.

(N boe*5,658.53)/1,000,000 = X mmcf/day

Billion cubic meters to million cubic feet

1 billion cubic meters is equal to 96.7 million cubic feet of natural gas, so multiply the number of billion cubic meters per year (bcm/year) by 96.7, and divide the answer by 365 days.

(N bcm/year*96.7)/365 = X mmcf/day