I think "barrel" has become a unit of measure. Much of the oil runs through pipelines, to tankers, transported and offloaded to refineries. It wouldn't surpri

I think "barrel" has become a unit of measure. Much of the oil runs through pipelines, to tankers, transported and offloaded to refineries. It wouldn't surprise me if 90% of all oil was never in an actual barrel, but even if so, I would imagine the barrels are reused, and so not factored in the price.