Over a Barrel

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Seeing a potential new client, I am ushered in briefly to meet the Chief Executive.

“What is a barrel?” he asks, rather abruptly.

I think equally rapidly. A facetious answer will be seen as ignorance, playing for time. I play straight: 

“42 US gallons, corrected to 60° Fahrenheit and 14.7 psia.” A pause. “I am surprised you need a lawyer to tell you that?”

He smiles: “I already knew! But I always ask lawyers that. It is surprising how many don’t know. Do they actually read the garbage they put out?”

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See also:  bbl

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Chris Thorpe

Chris Thorpe is a respected independent lawyer in the upstream oil and gas industry, and an established lecturer and author. Chris has a LLB in law from Magdalene College, Cambridge and trained as a barrister in London. He worked for eight years' as an in-house lawyer for BP and Marathon. Since 1991, Chris has run his own upstream legal practice, CPTL, which has acted for many upstream clients. He has extensive experience of international upstream transactions, principally in the North Sea, the FSU, Africa and the Middle East. Chris has spoken at many UK and International Conferences and Seminars, both public and in-house. His most popular current lecture is Fundamental of Upstream Petroleum Agreements, a two-day course with accompanying book.