Cubic Mile of Oil

The cubic mile of oil (CMO) is a unit of energy. It was created by Hew Crane of SRI International to aid in public understanding of global-scale energy consumption and resources.

Significant sources of energy include oil, coal, natural gas, nuclear, hydroelectric, and biomass (primarily the burning of wood). Other energy sources include geothermal, wind, photovoltaic, and solar thermal. The various energy units commonly used to measure these sources (e.g., joules, BTUs, kilowatt hours, therms) are only somewhat familiar to the general public, and their relationships can be confusing. These common energy units are sized for everyday activities (a joule is the energy required to lift a small apple one metre vertically). For regional, national, and global scales, larger energy units, such as the exajoule, the billion barrels of oil equivalent (BBOE) and the quad are used. Derived by multiplying the small common units by large powers of ten these larger units pose additional conceptual difficulties for many citizens.

Crane intended the cubic mile of oil to provide a visualizable scale for comparing the contributions of these diverse energy components as a percentage of total worldwide, energy use.

The global economy consumes approximately 30 billion barrels of oil (1.26 trillion U.S. gallons or 4.75 trillion ltrs ) each year. Numbers of this magnitude are difficult to conceive by most educated people. The volume occupied by one trillion U.S. gallons is about one cubic mile. Crane felt that a cubic mile would be an easier concept for the general public than a trillion gallons.