Convert Barrel (Oil) (bbl (oil)) to Kiloliter (kL) instantly.
About these units
Barrel (Oil) (bbl (oil))
An oil barrel is defined as 42 US gallons, or 158.987 liters, and is a fundamental unit in the petroleum industry. This peculiar size traces back to the early Pennsylvania oil fields, where producers standardized whiskey barrels and modified wooden casks for oil transport. The need for consistent trade volumes cemented the 42-gallon barrel as the industry norm. Today, global oil production, pricing, and consumption are expressed in barrels—from daily OPEC reports to energy market forecasts. Even though oil is no longer physically shipped in barrels, the unit remains deeply embedded in international energy economics.
Kiloliter (kL)
A kiloliter equals 1,000 liters, identical to 1 cubic meter, and is used in water management, municipal planning, agriculture, and commercial storage. Utility companies measure household water usage in kiloliters. Irrigation requirements, swimming pool volumes, and cistern capacities are also commonly expressed in this unit. Its equivalence to the cubic meter gives it flexibility—metric engineers may prefer m³, while public-facing documentation may use kL for clarity.