MMBL question

[kander]

Easy one guys. What does mmbl mean in relation to flow / consumption of barrels of oil. Is this million million barrels?

If so, what is the value in scientific notation as I think there is a diffence between US and European terminology for what a billion is. ??

Regards,

Kevin

 

[BigInch]

I think its much more common to find both "M" and "MM" used in Gas Flow, where "M" = 1,000 SCF and "MM" = 1,000,000 SCF, however it is also used for oil flow where "MBOPD" would indicate 1,000 BBLS per day.

I don't know the origin of the "M" designation. It looks like it was derived from from Roman numerals, but then that would be an M for 100. Anybody know?

BigInch-born in the trenches.

http://virtualpipeline.spaces.msn.com

 

[25362]

http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M

 

[BigInch]

BigInch-born in the trenches.

http://virtualpipeline.spaces.msn.com

 

[zdas04]

The "M" is the Roman Numeral for 1000

David

 

[katmar]

BigInch's theory of the M being tied to Roman Numerals makes sense to me, but I have no idea why it would have been adopted as the convention. In Latin (and in modern Italian) the word for "thousand" is "mille" and the Roman Numeral "M" was used for 1000. BTW, the Roman Numeral for 100 is C, as in Century.

I have always taken the prefix "M" as being one thousand and "MM" as being one million, so I think the OP's question has been answered. The most common usage I have seen of this terminology is in energy - e.g MMBTU of gas.



Katmar Software
Engineering & Risk Analysis Software

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[kander]

Guys,

The designation 'mmbbl' relates to Offshore Engineering magazine where it states new discoveries of oil reserves found globally in 2006. These are:

Shallow: 77 Fields @ 774 mmbbl Liquid Reverves & 527,258 bcf Gas Reserve.
Deep: 16 Fields @ 969 mmbbl Liquid Reverves & 9,600 bcf Gas Reserve.
Ultra Deep: 12 Fields @ 2,400 mmbbl Liquid Reverves & 3,100 bcf Gas Reserve.

Still not entirely clear how much this is but I presume it's a lot!

 

[BigInch]

One thing for sure, its not enough.

BigInch-born in the trenches.

http://virtualpipeline.spaces.msn.com

 

[zdas04]

Kander,
I must say that the designation preceeds the existance of Offshore Engineering Magazine by at least 3,000 years.

I'm not guessing, "M" as a unit prefix for "1,000" in Oil & Gas comes from the Roman Numeral. My first boss had an Oil Field Geology text book from the 1890's. Whenever someone would bring this up he would pull it out and there was a direct reference to MCF, MMCF, MMMCF (back then they didn't seem to use the BCF label), and MBBL and that the prefix was the Roman Numeral for 1,000. I don't know of an older Oil & Gas reference than that one.

David

 

[kander]

zdas04,

So if M means 1000, this must mean that MM is 1,000,000 or 1000 x 1000? Is this the case?

So in the case of the above 774 MMBBL must mean 774,000,000 Barrels?

Also, I assume BCF means billion cubic feet?

Now, is a US billion the same as a European one? i.e. 1,000,000,000?
Someone told me otherwise (1,000,000,000,000)

 

[BigInch]

An EU billion is 1E+12, which is why the US trade deficit sounds so high. Actually the Spanish language (as used in Spain), does not use the billion term at all, preferring to denote the number of thousands of thousands, such that 5E+9 becomes, "cinco mil de millones". I believe the same is true for French, where even 80 is "20x4". In England, however one billion has changed from 1E+12 and become 1E+9. I don't know about use in Scotland and Wales.

This seems to confirm the above,

http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/52579.html

The use of MM as a BOPD prefix for oil [red]flow[/color] is generally not used, since anything over 1 to perhaps 1.5 MMBOPD would be difficult to achieve in anything but the largest regional trunk lines. I can't think of a single instance where I have seen it used for oil, even for the very few lines in the world that can or eventually could reach such a capacity.



BigInch-born in the trenches.

http://virtualpipeline.spaces.msn.com

 

[doct9960]

kander,

MMbbl (million barrels) and bcf (billion cubic feet) are North American units for oil and gas, respectively. European units of measurement are based on the SI system. They usually refer to volume in terms of cubic meter (sometimes spelled as metre).

Here's an article explaining the history of the "barrel"

http://www.slate.com/id/2115219/

So if M means 1000, this must mean that MM is 1,000,000 or 1000 x 1000? Is this the case?

Yes

So in the case of the above 774 MMBBL must mean 774,000,000 Barrels?

Yes

Also, I assume BCF means billion cubic feet?

Yes

Now, is a US billion the same as a European one? i.e. 1,000,000,000?
Someone told me otherwise (1,000,000,000,000)

As far as I know, the "common" billion (1,000,000,000) is the same anywhere. If you google for billion, you will find out that there is a "short scale" billion (1,000,000,000) and a "long scale" billion (1,000,000,000,000). The former is the modern billion; and the latter is an old term and is rarely used (modern English language now calls this trillion)

 

[25362]

Let's not forget that the SI prefix symbol M means mega = 10⁶, as in MHz or MPa; 10⁹ = giga [→] G, and 10¹² = tera [→] T.

Prefixes shouldn't be combined into compound prefixes, thus MM is not accepted; for instance, Tg should be used, while MMg should not.

SI prefixes are not to be used with ^oC.

In the U.S.A. 10⁹ = billion, in other countries milliard.
In the U.S.A., 10¹² = trillion, in other countries, billion.

When used as a physical or chemical symbol, M should better be slanted and bold M.

 

[kander]

It sounds like the billion = 1 x 10^12 (commonly called trillion) is longer used. Is this the case? Can you think of any industry where this is still used?

Surely any of the countries that have adopted the SI system would condsider a billion to be 1 x 10^9 ? A trillion 1 x 10^12 ?

Big Inch, the designation used for MMBBL is for approximate global reserves and understood probably not used in the industry that much.

 

[BigInch]

Yes, but you did ask, "What does mmbl mean in relation to flow / consumption", and reserves are differentiated from flow and consumption and indicating only a quantity.

BigInch-born in the trenches.

http://virtualpipeline.spaces.msn.com

 

[zdas04]

25362,
Roman numerals instead of SI causes some confusion, but not as much as you would think. Many people wish the SI prefixes had been used by the old-time US Oil guys, but it wasn't and we seem to be stuck with Roman Numerals for volumes. MCF, MMCF, MMBTU are terms that are reasonably unambiguous when discussing hydrocarbon production the world over. The made-up unit of "therm" (I guess all units are made up, but this one feels phony to me) is becoming fairly common for gas consumption in contracts, but it isn't in common usage 25 years after it was proposed.

To say "MM is not accepted" flies in the face of its worldwide usage to mean "a thousand thousand". You could say "MM is poor grammar" and you'd be right, just like you'd be right to say that "ain't" is poor grammar--that doesn't mean that the use of either vulgar term is not perfectly well understood.

I don't know how the term "billion" got so screwed up. The oldest references I can find are pretty old saying it is 1,000 million. The term "milliard" just seems odd to me and I've never heard it used in conversation in other countries, and it seems largely unknown in the US.

On the other hand, when I started in this industry the "unit" of "$M" was common and always meant "thousands of dollars". Today it is really ambiguous and most people I deal with use "$k" to mean thousands of dollars and "$M" to mean millions. People can evolve, but it is slow.

BigInch,
The DOE US and Worldwide statistics often us MMbbl to state imports, exports, consumption, and reserves of crude oil. I sometimes see it in company annual reports and SEC 10K reporting. I don't see it much in talking about individual plant or flow line capacity.

David

 

[BigInch]

Yes, I totally agree it is commonly used for oil reserves and import statistics, but the original question was flow related, which (to me) implies a continuous flow pipeline capacity, as opposed to batch imports via VLCC. I am only saying MM is not a commonality for oil pipelines, due to the rarity of size of a system needed to deliver such quantities, however "M" BOPD is most certainly in common usage.

BigInch-born in the trenches.

http://virtualpipeline.spaces.msn.com

 

[doct9960]

kander,

In my humble opinion, the term "billion" when associated with oil or gas reserves is equal to 1,000,000,000, regardless of units (i.e. bbl, cubic feet, cubic meter, tonnes). I have read some articles where they mentioned "trillion cubic meters of gas" or "trillion tonnes of oil".

Why dont you post in forum470 to get some more feedbacks (or confusion). Also ask the math forum for your "billion" dollar question : )

cheers

 

[25362]

zdas04, when I said MM is not accepted, I thought it would be understood:... by the International System of units (SI).

 

[zdas04]

Sorry, I didn't get it. I envisioned the thought police running rampant through the Oil & Gas industry.

David

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