Oil Barrels to Metric Teaspoons (bbl to tsp)

1 oil barrel equals 31,797.45899 metric teaspoons (rounded).

1 oil barrel = 31,797.45899 metric teaspoons

How to convert oil barrels to metric teaspoons

To convert oil barrels to metric teaspoons, multiply the number of oil barrels by 31,797.45899. The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply metric teaspoons by 0.00003144905385 (rounded).

metric teaspoons = oil barrels × 31,797.45899

Example: 10 oil barrels = 317,974.5899 metric teaspoons.

Pints, quarts, gallons and fluid ounces differ between the US and the UK. Units are labeled 'US' or 'imperial' to avoid confusion.

About these units

Oil Barrel (bbl)

US customaryCurrent unit

Exactly 42 US gallons (158.987 L). The unit of crude oil trade since the 1860s Pennsylvania oil fields.

The oil barrel did not come from the oil industry's own design but from the barrels already lying around Pennsylvania. After Drake's well of 1859 started a boom, producers shipped crude in whatever containers were handy: whiskey barrels of around 40 gallons, plus 42 and 45 gallon casks. Buyers grew suspicious of the inconsistency, and around 1866 producers settled on the wine tierce of 42 gallons, two gallons bigger than the common whiskey barrel. An Oil City circular of August 1866 also promised an allowance of two gallons in every 40.

By 1872 the 42-gallon standard was firmly established, and US government bodies adopted it in 1882. The barrel is exactly 42 US gallons, about 159 liters, and remains the worldwide pricing unit for crude, even though many countries report volumes in cubic meters. EIA says Strait of Hormuz flows of 20 million barrels a day equal about a fifth of global consumption, implying roughly 100 million barrels a day. The abbreviation bbl has a disputed origin: a popular story links it to Standard Oil's blue barrels, but the abbreviation predates the oil industry.

1 oil barrel = 158.9872949 liters (approximately).

Sources: Wikipedia: Barrel (unit); NIST SP 811, Appendix B.8: conversion factors for volume; EIA: Today in Energy, Strait of Hormuz oil flows

Metric Teaspoon (tsp)

Cooking & barCurrent unit

Exactly 5 mL, used in most countries.

Five milliliters is the metric teaspoon, a figure so tidy that it has become the working definition for medicine and food labels. The traditional British teaspoon was an imperial fluid drachm, one eighth of an imperial fluid ounce, about 3.55 milliliters, and the American one was 4.93 mL. US nutrition labeling law now defines a teaspoon as exactly 5 milliliters.

The 5 mL teaspoon matters most when dosing medicine. Kitchen spoons vary widely, with one Greek survey of 71 household teaspoons finding volumes from 2.5 to 7.3 mL, so measuring spoons, syringes and calibrated cups are the safer tools. It also anchors the metric cooking system: three teaspoons make a 15 mL tablespoon, and fifty fit in a 250 mL metric cup. Australia keeps a 5 mL teaspoon but counts four of them in its larger 20 mL tablespoon.

1 metric teaspoon = 0.005 liters (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Teaspoon; 21 CFR 101.9: nutrition labeling household measures; Wikipedia: Metric cup

Related conversions

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