alt Hacker NewsI buy ~200,000 physical barrels of oil for 2 refineries every single day. The quantity is mind blowing and Im not even a particularly large oil trader in the grand scheme of things. The world drinks ~104 million barrels per day or around 1200 barrels a second. An olympic swimming pool holds ~15000 barrels of volume. In Canada, we trade in "cubes" which are M3. Each M3 is ~6.29287 barrels of oil. I do my monthly planning in km3.
I'm happy to answer any industry questions in case anyone has any. It is a fascinating job.
Replies
OptionOfT • 04/25/2025
Do you actually buy them on the spot market or buy them as futures?
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cj • 04/25/2025
Do refineries employ people like you directly? Or do you work for a downstream supplier of some kind? Curious what the supply chain looks like.
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I find it nearly incomprehensible that so much oil exists. That's ~7k Olympic swimming pools of oil every day. This has been going on for decades.