[deanmc]

Originally Posted by prairiecustom

Actually a barrel of oil is not 45 gal. It is 42 US gal,or 159 liters or 35 imp gal.
That being said it is still quite a bit.

I learned something today!! lol Thanks

Oil barrel, (abbreviation bbl): 42 US gallons (34.9723 imp gal; 158.9873 L)[7](but see caveat below regarding conversion to metric units)
The standard oil barrel of 42 US gallons is used in the United States as a measure of crude oil and other petroleum products.

The origins of the 42-gallon oil barrel are obscure, but some historical documents indicate that around 1866, early oil producers in Pennsylvania came to the conclusion that shipping oil in a variety of different containers was causing buyer distrust. They decided they needed a standard unit of measure to convince buyers that they were getting a fair volume for their money. They agreed to base this measure on the more-or-less standard 40-gallon whiskey barrel, but, as an additional way of assuring buyer confidence, they added an additional two gallons to ensure that any measurement errors would always be in the buyer's favor, on the same principle as that underlying the baker's dozen and some other long units of measure.