The barrel is a unit of volume used in the oil industry with the symbol bbl.
Oil is more commonly expressed in terms of cubic metres (m³) but in the US and in the economic world (mainly because such a large percentage of the world's oil is shipped to the US) as barrels.
The measurement of the barrel originated in the US at the first oil well in Pennsylvania. There were so many variants of barrel size (including those used for wine and other goods) that the distrust became so prevalent a central and standard barrel size was created. This was finally established in 1872 as 42 US gallons.
The cubic millimetre (or cubic millimeter; US spelling) is a unit of volume and is derived from an SI unit with the symbol mm³.
One cubic millimetre is defined as the volume of a cube with sides one millimetre in length. It is the same as a microlitre. It is equal to 0.000000001m³.
There are 1 billion cubic millimetres in a cubic metre.