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Thank you Ed Ireland! Energy is Life as we know it and the Democrats are doing their best to Destroy our country. It is my hope that informative articles like your’s will (before November) reach the “energy ignorant 40% + “ that support Biden’s and Democrat policies. Have a great Easter weekend.

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Thanks for your comment, Dick. Yes, we all need to do everything we can to help voters make the right decisions next November. I hope you have a great Easter weekend as well. Ed

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12.9 million barrels a day is roughly equal (depending on crude & condensate properties) to around 900 GW continuously 24/7/365 throughout 2023.

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Thanks, Chris. How did you make that calculation? It is an interesting number for sure. Ed

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Hello Ed,

A while ago I searched 'barrel of oil in kilowatt hour' and found various hits. This one

https://www.unitpedia.com/barrel-of-oil-equivalent-to-kilowatt-hour/

has the conversion factor 1,700 kWh per bbl that I used for my comment, then rounded down the result.

I've just re-searched and found https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/units-and-calculators/ which includes

"Btu content of common energy units (preliminary estimates for 2022)

1 barrel (42 gallons) of crude oil produced in the United States = 5,684,000 Btu"

which is 1665.8 kWh / bbl - close enough for government work.

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The rest of the conversion calculations:

approx. e.g. US 2023 bbl/d 12,900,000

approx. kWh / bbl 1,665.8

kWh / d 21,488,820,000

h / d 24

kW 895,367,500

GW 895

All the best

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Thanks Chris. Should that be in GWhours?

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Hello Ed,

No, we're converting the rate of oil production to the (gross) rate of energy production.

12.9 million bbl/d x 1,665.8 = 21,488,820,000 kWh/d (= 21,488.82 GWh/d)

Power is rate of energy / time.

21,488.82 GWh/d = 21,488.82 GWh/ (24 h) = 895.4 GW

To emphasise, this is the gross number.

If we burned that oil in power stations we would only get around 40% of that power as useful electricity from them. (Plus we'd probably get an awful amount of smoky particulates...)

I hope that helps.

Best.

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Great info, Chris. Thanks! Ed

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