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
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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
