Energy Conversion Tables

The National Energy Board uses the International System of Units.

• Common Units
  • Crude Oil and Natural Gas Liquids
  • Natural Gas
  • Electricity
• Common Conversions
• Prefixes and Equivalents
• Energy Content
  • Energy
  • Crude Oil
  • Natural Gas
  • Natural Gas Liquids
  • Electricity
  • Coal
  • Petroleum Products
  • Other Fuels
• Links to Other Conversion Tables

The following conversion table of commonly used units is provided for the convenience of people who may be more familiar with the Imperial System.

Common Units

Crude Oil and Natural Gas Liquids

Abbreviation	Description
b/d	barrels per day
bbl	barrels
m3	cubic metre
m3/d	cubic metres per day
Mb/d	thousand barrels per day
MMb	million barrels
MMb/d	million barrels per day

Natural Gas

Abbreviation	Description
Bcf	billion cubic feet
Bcf/d	billion cubic feet per day
Btu/cf	British thermal units per cubic feet
cf	cubic feet
m3	cubic metre
m3/d	cubic metres per day
Mcf	thousand cubic feet
MMBtu	million British thermal units
MMcf	million cubic feet
MMcf/d	million cubic feet per day
Tcf	trillion cubic feet

Electricity

Abbreviation	Description
MW	megawatt
kW.h	kilowatt hour
MW.h	megawatt hour
GW.h	gigawatt hour
TW.h	terawatt hour

Common Conversions

From	To	Multiply By
metres (m)	feet	3.2808
kilometres (km)	miles	0.621
hectares (ha)	acres	2.471
kilograms (kg)	pounds	2.205
cubic metres (m3)	barrels (oil or natural gas liquids)	6.292
cubic metres (m3)	cubic feet of natural gas (@ 14.73 psia and 60oF)	35.301
litres (L)	US gallons	0.265
litres (L)	imperial gallons	0.220
imperial gallons	US gallons	1.201
barrels (bbl)	US gallons	42.0
barrels (bbl)	imperial gallons	34.972
metric tonnes (t)	pounds	2204.6
kilometers/litre	miles/gallon	2.825
gigajoules (GJ)	million British thermal units	0.95

Prefixes and Equivalents

Prefixes		Equivalent
k	(kilo)	103
M	(mega)	106
G	(giga)	109
T	(tera)	1012
P	(peta)	1015
E	(exa)	1018

Energy Content

The energy content of a 30-litre tank of gasoline is approximately one gigajoule or 0.95 million Btu of energy. A petajoule is one million gigajoules. On average, Canada consumes about one petajoule of energy every 50 minutes for all uses (heat, light and transportation) for both commercial and residential use.

Energy

Unit	Equivalent to
gigajoule (GJ)	109 joules 0.95 million Btu 0.95 thousand cubic feet of natural gas at 1000 Btu/cf 0.165 barrels of oil 0.28 megawatt hour of electricity

Crude Oil

Unit	Equivalent to
1 cubic metre (m3) (pentanes plus)	35.17 GJ
1 cubic metre (m3) (light)	38.51 GJ
1 cubic metre (m3) (heavy)	40.90 GJ

Natural Gas

Unit	Equivalent to
1 cubic metre (m3)	35.301 cubic feet @ 14.73 psia and 60oF
thousand cubic feet (Mcf)	1.05 GJ
million cubic feet (MMcf)	1.05 TJ
billion cubic feet (Bcf)	1.05 PJ
trillion cubic feet (Tcf)	1.05 EJ

Natural Gas Liquids

Unit	Equivalent to
1 cubic metre (m3) (ethane)	18.36 GJ
1 cubic metre (m3) (propane)	25.53 GJ
1 cubic metre (m3) (butane)	28.62 GJ

Electricity

Unit	Equivalent to
gigawatt hour (GW.h)	106 kW.h 3 600 GJ 0.0036 PJ
kilowatt hour (kW.h)	0.0036 GJ
megawatt hour (MW.h)	3.6 GJ
terawatt hour (TW.h)	109 kW.h 3.6 PJ

Coal

Unit	Equivalent to
1 tonne (t) (anthracite)	27.70 GJ
1 tonne (t) (bituminous)	27.60 GJ
1 tonne (t) (lignite)	14.40 GJ
1 tonne (t) (subbituminous)	18.80 GJ

Petroleum Products

Unit	Equivalent to
1 cubic metre (m3) (asphalt)	44.46 GJ
1 cubic metre (m3) (aviation gasoline)	33.52 GJ
1 cubic metre (m3) (aviation turbo fuel)	35.93 GJ
1 cubic metre (m3) (diesel)	38.68 GJ
1 cubic metre (m3) (heavy fuel oil)	41.73 GJ
1 cubic metre (m3) (kerosene)	37.68 GJ
1 cubic metre (m3) (light fuel oil)	38.68 GJ
1 cubic metre (m3) (lubes and greases)	39.16 GJ
1 cubic metre (m3) (motor gasoline)	34.66 GJ
1 cubic metre (m3) (naphtha specialties)	35.17 GJ
1 cubic metre (m3) (petrochemical feedstock)	34.17 GJ
1 cubic metre (m3) (petroleum coke)	42.38 GJ
1 cubic metre (m3) (still gas)	41.73 GJ
1 cubic metre (m3) (other products)	39.82 GJ

Other Fuels

Unit	Equivalent to
1 cubic metre (m3) (ethanol)	23.60 GJ
1 cubic metre (m3) (hydrogen)	0.12 GJ
1 cubic metre (m3) (methanol)	15.60 GJ

Links to Other Conversion Tables

More complete and precise conversion tables can be found at:

• http://www.onlineconversion.com/energy.htm
• http://www.simetric.co.uk/si_de.htm
• http://www.ior.com.au/ecflist.html
• http://www.thetipsbank.com/convert.htm