Oil processing

< Oil processing

Oil processing is a large part of Factorio. It was introduced in v0.9. Oil processing may refer to the researched technology, the recipe used in the Oil refinery, or the overall workings of oil.

Technologies

Oil processing allows the player to set up a basic facility to mine, process, and use oil. To be able to increase the usefulness of the created oil products, you may want to research Sulfur processing, as a prerequisite for the research of the Battery, which is used in many items later on, including the Science pack 3. Plastics are also useful, as the Plastic bar is an ingredient in the Advanced circuit, which is used often later on. Fluid handling allows you better control over your liquids, with items such as the Storage Tank and Small Pump. Advanced oil processing gives you a new recipe for use in the Oil refinery, allowing you to get more useful products from your Crude Oil. Finally, researching Flammables gives you access to the Flamethrower.

Recipes

There are various recipes that can be done regarding Oil processing. They are listed below.

After researching File:Oil-gathering.png Oil processing:
Process	Input	Machine	Output
File:Basic-oil-processing.png Basic oil processing	File:Crude-oil.png 10 5	File:Oil-refinery.png	File:Heavy-oil.png 3 File:Light-oil.png 3 File:Petroleum-gas.png 4
File:Solid-fuel-from-heavy-oil.png Solid fuel	File:Heavy-oil.png 2 3	File:Chemical-plant.png	File:Solid-fuel.png 1
File:Solid-fuel-from-light-oil.png Solid fuel	File:Light-oil.png 1 3	File:Chemical-plant.png	File:Solid-fuel.png 1
File:Solid-fuel-from-petroleum-gas.png Solid fuel	File:Petroleum-gas.png 2 3	File:Chemical-plant.png	File:Solid-fuel.png 1
Lubricant	File:Heavy-oil.png 1 1	File:Chemical-plant.png	1
After researching File:Advanced-oil-processing-tech.png Advanced oil processing:
Process	Input	Machine	Output
File:Advanced-oil-processing.png Advanced oil processing	File:Crude-oil.png 10 5 5	File:Oil-refinery.png	File:Heavy-oil.png 1 File:Light-oil.png 4.5 File:Petroleum-gas.png 5.5
File:Heavy-oil-cracking.png Heavy oil cracking	File:Heavy-oil.png 4 3 5	File:Chemical-plant.png	File:Light-oil.png 3
File:Light-oil-cracking.png Light oil cracking	File:Light-oil.png 3 3 5	File:Chemical-plant.png	File:Petroleum-gas.png 2
After researching File:Fluid-handling.png Fluid handling:
Process	Input	Machine	Output
File:Fill-crude-oil-barrel.png Fill crude oil barrel	File:Barrel-empty.png 1 File:Crude-oil.png 25 1	File:Assembling-machine-2.png or File:Assembling-machine-3.png	1
File:Empty-crude-oil-barrel.png Empty crude oil barrel	1 1	File:Assembling-machine-2.png or File:Assembling-machine-3.png	File:Barrel-empty.png 1 File:Crude-oil.png 25
After researching Sulfur processing:
Process	Input	Machine	Output
Sulfur	3 File:Petroleum-gas.png 3 1	File:Chemical-plant.png	2
File:Sulfuric-acid.png Sulfuric Acid	File:Iron-plate.png 1 5 10 1	File:Chemical-plant.png	File:Sulfuric-acid.png 5
After researching File:Advanced-electronics-1.png Advanced electronics:
Process	Input	Machine	Output
File:Processing-unit.png Processing unit	File:Electronic-circuit.png 20 File:Advanced-circuit.png 2 File:Sulfuric-acid.png 0.5 15	File:Assembling-machine-2.png or File:Assembling-machine-3.png	File:Processing-unit.png 1
After researching File:Battery-tech.png Battery:
Process	Input	Machine	Output
Battery	File:Iron-plate.png 1 File:Copper-plate.png 1 File:Sulfuric-acid.png 2 5	File:Chemical-plant.png	1
After researching File:Plastics.png Plastics:
Process	Input	Machine	Output
File:Plastic-bar.png Plastics	1 File:Petroleum-gas.png 3 1	File:Chemical-plant.png	File:Plastic-bar.png 2
After researching File:Flammables.png Flammables and File:Flame-thrower.png Flame thrower:
Process	Input	Machine	Output
File:Flame-thrower-ammo.png Flamethrower ammo	File:Iron-plate.png 5 File:Heavy-oil.png 2.5 File:Light-oil.png 2.5 3	File:Chemical-plant.png	File:Flame-thrower-ammo.png 1

Mechanics & Usage

To mine, process and use oil, you'll need to do some research, as shown above.

Overview

File:Example-Oil-Refining.png

Oil being drilled and refined.

File:Example-Oil-Cracking.png

Oil being cracked into lower forms.

File:Example-Oil-Usage.png

Oil being used to create plastic and batteries.

Pumpjacks need to be placed on top of the middle of the oil well. Given electricity (90kW, upgradeable), they will produce a certain amount of Crude Oil per second, shown on the right, at the bottom of the information panel. Over time this value will decrease. Once it reaches 0.1 oil/s, it will continue to output this, never increasing or decreasing. This means that having enough pumpjacks on depleted oil wells will provide you with enough oil, but it is better to find new oil wells. To transport the oil, you can use Barrels, and Diesel locomotives if you'd like.

The Crude Oil then needs to be refined in an Oil refinery. The Oil refinery also needs electricity. It has a much higher demand, at 420kW, but it is also upgradeable. The oil refinery needs to have a recipe set (see above for available recipes). Once it is set, the inputs and outputs show what needs to be, and what will be supplied. You cannot move the locations of these, only rotate the entire machine. Make sure that the products have somewhere to go (preferably Storage Tanks), as the refinery will stop production of all products if one product output is full.

Now you have the three basic products. Heavy Oil, Light Oil and Petroleum Gas. Both Heavy Oil and Light Oil can be cracked to the next lower type in a Chemical plant (recipe above). This is useful if you've got lots of Light Oil, but are lacking in Petroleum Gas (A common problem).

From here, after some research, you can use the oil products to create various products. They are all listed above.

Distant Oil Fields

After the player has exhausted the oil fields near her home base, she may have to build remote refineries, or remote pump stations.

Commonly Used Items

Pumpjack	Pumpjacks mine the Crude Oil from the Oil wells, and let you move it by Pipe.
File:Oil-refinery.png Oil refinery	Refines Crude Oil into basic oil products (Heavy-/Light Oil and Petroleum Gas).
File:Chemical-plant.png Chemical plant	Like the Assembling machine, used to automate processing of liquids and crafting.
File:Storage-tank.png Storage Tank	Stores up to 2500 units of any liquid.
File:Small-pump.png Small Pump	Allows you to pump liquids from one area to another. Used inline (Between pipes).
Pump	Allows you to pump water up from a body of water.
File:Assembling-machine-2.png Assembling machine 2 File:Assembling-machine-3.png Assembling machine 3	Allows you to craft items using liquids, used mainly for Barrels.
Pipe	Allows transporting of liquids from one location to another.
File:Pipe-to-ground.png [[Underground Pipe|Underground Pipe]]	A Pipe, but under the ground, acting similar to Underground belts.

See also

• Version0.9
• Liquids
• Oil Production: What is more efficient?