Convert Barrel (Oil) (bbl (oil)) to Megaliter (ML) 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.
Megaliter (ML)
A megaliter is one million liters, equivalent to 1,000 cubic meters. It is used in large-scale water management, including municipal supply systems, reservoirs, agricultural irrigation planning, and hydroengineering. City planners and hydrologists often express daily water consumption in megaliters per day (ML/day). For example, a medium-sized city might use anywhere from 50 to several hundred ML daily. The unit is especially helpful because it bridges the gap between the cubic meter (too small for city-scale usage) and the gigaliter (too large for many practical applications). As water scarcity and climate resilience become critical global issues, the megaliter continues to be a foundational measurement in environmental science and infrastructure planning.