Not the answer you want when you ask a prospective romantic partner the question, "how many pickles do you eat?" But it's exactly the measure you're looking for when you ask someone about oil output.
We know what you're going to say: "when did a barrel become an accepted amount of anything?" We get it. We're all pretty comfortable with gallons and maybe liters (if we're dealing with Europeans or Canadians), but now we're going to start measuring oil (and only oil) in some arbitrary measure like "barrels." If you want to trade in mayonnaise futures, are they traded by the jar? Is cocoa traded in "mugfuls"?
We're afraid the "barrels" thing is just one of those historical quirks that comes along with having a financial market that stretches back to a time when people rode to work on horseback and wore silk socks and knee-britches. When they started using "barrels" as the accepted measure of an amount of oil, there was still farmland on Manhattan. It's just the way it is. (A barrel of oil is 42 gallons, by the way.)
If you run an oil production facility (like an offshore rig, or a field of those giant hammer-looking things that move up and down), then you measure the amount of oil you pull out of the ground in barrels per day. It's just how it goes.
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Finance: What Are Commodities?74 Views
Finance allah shmoop What are commodities This is a comm
owed And this is my monnet ease And neither of
them have anything to do with commodities though if you
say them fast enough well you'll never mind A commodity
is something that is common like it's everywhere See the
com o there for the big hand Like gold is
a commodity it's everywhere oil is a commodity it's everywhere
seven hundred fourteen page paperback copy of moby dick is
a commodity and yes we can't resist clueless politicians are
a commodity as well Well a commodity is basically the
same thing no matter where and how you buy it
That copy of moby dick is the same copy whether
you get it at your local bookstore If a physical
book stores even exist anymore or on amazon the serial
killer of those aforementioned book stores So if something is
the same everywhere well what would be the opposite Well
how about a swim lesson from michael phelps You know
you can't buy that on amazon Not yet anyway Or
say you want to be the proud owner of a
three headed dog Well you might be able to find
one somewhere but it's going to cost you a whole
lot of kibble Or what if you were looking to
buy a blouse like one that was worn by j
edgar hoover Well those are pretty uncommon and or unique
commodities Well the basic idea is that most commodities can
be sold by lots of people so their profit margins
are generally low They may sell an extreme volume but
if you have thirty people competing to sell you that
same copy of moby dick don't don't you think the
last guy just desperate to get it off his shelves
will drop the price really low and you'll take it
Yeah unfortunately then you have to read that book That 00:01:41.357 --> [endTime] book really will be your way
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