Cubic Yards to Barrels

Oil, liquid and dry barrels: which one you need

How many barrels are in a cubic yard depends on which barrel you mean. A cubic yard holds about 4.81 oil barrels (42 gallons each) but about 6.41 US liquid barrels (31.5 gallons each). That’s why one site says 4.81 and another says 6.41: both are right, they just use different barrels.

“Barrel” isn’t one size. It’s a family of units fixed by law or trade custom, and the main ones are listed in NIST Handbook 44, Appendix C. A cubic yard is always the same number of US gallons, so the size of the barrel is the only thing that changes your answer.

Each barrel belongs to a different trade:

• Oil barrel (42 gal): oil and gas production, shipping and reporting.
• US liquid barrel (31.5 gal): the “barrel for liquids” in many state weights-and-measures laws.
• Beer barrel (31 gal): brewers and the federal beer tax.
• US dry barrel (7,056 in³): fruit, vegetables and other dry goods. Cranberries have their own, smaller barrel. For grain and similar goods, see bushels and other dry measures.

In oil, gas and drilling work, bbl (the oil industry’s abbreviation for barrel) with no qualifier means the 42-gallon barrel. Outside oil, check the gallons on the paperwork or the container label. If the size doesn’t match any barrel above, enter it as a custom size in the converter above.

A 55-gallon drum is a container, not a legal barrel unit, which is why it gives a third answer: about 3.67 drums per cubic yard. Drums get their own sections below. One more unit to watch for: a “barrel of oil equivalent” (BOE) measures energy, not volume, so it can’t be converted to cubic yards.

Barrels of soil, sand, concrete or water

A cubic yard of soil fills the same number of barrels as a cubic yard of anything else: about 4.81 oil-size barrels or 3.67 55-gallon drums. Barrels measure space, so the material doesn’t change the count. What it changes is how heavy each barrel gets.

A barrel of sand and a barrel of water take up the same room, but the sand barrel weighs far more. The table shows about how much a full container weighs for common materials. Water is about 8.34 lb per US gallon, according to the USGS Water Science School. The other weights are typical values that vary with moisture and grading.

Those numbers add up fast. A full 55-gallon drum of soil, sand, gravel or concrete weighs several hundred pounds to over a thousand, which is too heavy to lift or roll by hand. Fill the drum where it will stay, or fill it only part of the way.

You may also hear “barrel” used loosely for soil or mulch, such as a heaped barrel or a trash-can barrel. Those aren’t standard sizes. Measure the container in gallons and enter it as a custom size in the converter above.

To see the total weight of your own amount, pick the material under “What’s inside” in the converter. For more materials, check the cubic yard weight chart. If your supplier sells by weight, convert cubic yards to tons before you order.

Cubic yards in 55-gallon drums and rain barrels

A 55-gallon drum holds about 0.27 cubic yards, which is 7.35 cubic feet or about 208.2 liters. So one cubic yard fills about 3.67 drums. You can’t buy part of a drum, so plan on 4.

Always round up to whole drums:

• 1 yd³ → 3.67 drums → plan on 4
• 2 yd³ → 7.34 drums → plan on 8
• 5 yd³ → 18.36 drums → plan on 19

The converter’s containers-to-fill result does this rounding for any amount. Keep in mind that 55 gallons is the drum’s nominal size, and drums usually aren’t filled to the brim. In practice, a cubic yard can take a little more than 3.67 drums.

The same math answers how many yards of concrete fit in a 55-gallon drum: about 0.27 yd³, a little over a quarter yard, weighing roughly 1,100 lb when full. If you’re mixing in drums, think of each one as a bit more than a quarter-yard batch. If you’re mixing from bags instead, check how many bags of concrete make a cubic yard.

Rain barrels and cisterns come in many sizes, and many are smaller than 55 gallons. Weights-and-measures law even recognizes a 36-gallon barrel for measuring cisterns. Read the gallons on your barrel and enter them as a custom size in the converter above. Water is heavy too: a full 55-gallon drum of it weighs about 459 lb, so set the barrel where it will stay before it fills.

Barrels to cubic yards

To convert barrels to cubic yards, multiply the number of barrels by the cubic yards in one barrel. 100 oil barrels is about 20.79 cubic yards, 100 liquid barrels is about 15.60, and 100 55-gallon drums is about 27.23.

• Oil barrel (42 gal): barrels × 0.208 = cubic yards
• US liquid barrel (31.5 gal): barrels × 0.156 = cubic yards
• 55-gallon drum: drums × 0.272 = cubic yards

For a rough check, figure about 5 oil barrels to a cubic yard. That’s a slight overestimate of the real 4.81, so it’s fine for checking a number but not for placing an order.

This direction usually comes up when you’re sizing something sold in cubic yards, like a truck, a roll-off box or a dumpster size, for liquids or waste counted in barrels. Round the cubic yards up to the next container size. The reverse tab in the converter above gives the exact figure.

Worked examples

Cubic yards to barrels FAQs