Chapter 14 ‐ Oil processing part 1 ‐ Transporting oil, basic oil processing, and early oil products

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Obtaining and transporting oil

Oil is extracted from the ground using pumpjacks, which can only be built on top of oil pools that are found already exposed in oil fields. Every oil pool has a yield percentage which translates to how much oil is extracted in each cycle of the pumpjack. This yield decreases as the pool gets drained, but it never reaches zero, meaning that you are guaranteed a trickling supply of crude oil in the late game, although usually it becomes inefficient enough for you to seek additional oil fields.

Unlike all the starting ores, oil fields are located far from the crash site by design. Therefore, the first challenge with oil processing is arranging the logistics to get it back to your base. There are three main options available for transporting oil: Building a long pipeline, building a long train line, or building a long transport belt. Alternatively, you may prefer to do your oil processing by the oil field itself, although this would mean having to transport various oil products back to the base instead of just crude oil.

The oil pipeline option is generally the cheapest one. For the pipeline, a single pipe with no pumps on it is sufficient at the start. In order to keep the oil flow high, it is recommended to use long stretches of underground pipes as much as possible, because underground segments do not count towards the pressure drop that occurs as pipes get longer. Afterward, if needed, occasional pumps can be added along the pipeline.

The train line is usually the most effective option. For a train line, oil can be transported in fluid wagons, or put in steel barrels that go into cargo wagons. The train driving can be automatic or manual.

The transport belt option is generally not worth it compared to the pipeline option, because the oil must be put in steel barrels and the empty barrels must be transported back.

The second main challenge with obtaining oil is getting power to your oil fields in order to make the pumpjacks work. There are several possible solutions to this. One option for this is to have long power lines running alongside your pipeline or train line, which is quite doable with big electric poles. Otherwise, you need to generate power at the oil fields. Solar panels are quite feasible in this use case because even when they don't work at night, they tend to be enough to keep your oil supply going. Alternatively, you can turn some of the local oil into solid fuel to run a local steam engine plant. Or, as a more unusual alternative, you can transport coal or steam to the oil field via train and run some generators there.

Oil processing overview

Oil processing in Factorio begins at the oil refinery building, which can do either basic oil processing or advanced oil processing or also coal liquification. Afterward, the fluids produced at the oil refinery are piped into chemical plants, which produce further fluids and/or oil products to be used around the factory. Many oil processing recipes require water and so it is generally recommended to build your petrochemical area near a water source or to build a water pipeline to it. Basic oil processing is sufficient by itself throughout the mid game but the late game recipes require products obtained via advanced oil processing.

Oil refinery

The oil refinery is a 5 by 5 building that consumes a lot of power (around half of one steam engine's capacity per refinery). It consists of several pipes, tanks, and a smokestack that blasts out black smoke during operation. It has two input pipes along its back wall with a tile of space between them and three output pipes along its front wall, with a tile of space in between adjacent outputs. A single oil refinery has decent production rates in general, but as with anything else in Factorio, it is useful to have multiple of them.

Chemical plant

A chemical plant is a 3 by 3 building that works just like an assembling machine, but it involves chemical processes that can input and/or output fluids via pipes. The building has a large storage tank, various pipes, and a smokestack that blasts out smoke while the building is operating. Its two input pipes are along its back with one tile of space in between them, and its two output pipes are similarly across its front with a tile of space in between them. The building consumes half as much power as an oil refinery. For chemical plant recipes, the input pipe for each fluid is at a fixed corner of the building that cannot be swapped, although the building can be rotated to face four directions. Apart from making oil products, chemical plants are also useful for cracking purposes after unlocking advanced oil processing.

Basic oil products

Oil products are generally produced in chemical plants. The first available oil products in Factorio are sulfur, plastic, solid fuel, and explosives. Sulfur is made from petroleum gas and water. It is used in making chemical science packs, and it can be further processed to make sulfuric acid, which can be used to make batteries and other things. Plastic is made from coal and petroleum gas, and it is used in making advanced circuits and various composite materials. Solid fuel is a processed fuel that can be made from various fluids including petroleum gas. It has higher energy density than coal and performs better in vehicles. Explosives are used for clearing cliffs and producing various heavy armaments. There are some other oil products in Factorio, but they require advanced oil processing.

Basic oil processing

Basic oil processing is the first available refinery recipe, and it turns crude oil into petroleum gas. The crude oil is fed from an input pipe interface behind the refinery building and the petroleum gas output is at a front face corner of the building.

When compared to advanced oil processing, basic oil processing is a lot simpler to set up because it has only one input and only one output. It also uses less space. However, it produces only about half as much output for the same amount of crude oil, and it does not produce heavy oil or light oil, which are needed for later recipes. Nevertheless, you can still use basic oil processing for the majority of your petroleum gas needs throughout the game.

Setting up basic oil processing areas

Generally, it is practical to set up oil processing using buildings arranged in rows. Just like how one arranges rows of assembling machines with transport belts for different items around them, one can arrange rows of chemical plants and oil refineries with pipes of different fluids around them. Individual techniques for arranging machines in rows have been outlined below.

A complete setup for basic oil processing can produce solid fuel, sulfur, sulfuric acid, batteries, and plastic. As ingredients, the setup needs crude oil to make the petroleum gas, water to make sulfur, coal to make plastic, and finally iron and copper plates to make sulfuric acid and batteries. In addition, a supply of empty barrels, or steel to make empty barrels, may be useful in order to transport sulfuric acid, although it can also be piped. The area also needs a good amount of space to arrange pipes and belts, with at least 20 tiles by 20 tiles to do things comfortably.

As an alternative, it is possible to split up the oil processing area to make different recipes in different areas of the factory. For example, the first area can make only solid fuel, sulfur and plastic. The sulfur and plastic can be shipped across the factory, including the second area, which makes only acid and batteries. This would lead to the first area requiring only crude oil, coal, and water. The second area would require water, sulfur, iron, copper, and perhaps barrels.

Technique: Basic oil processing row

The simple way to set up a row of refineries with basic oil processing is to sandwich them between a pair of pipes. After one refinery is placed, a pipe running across its back wall would surely interface with its input for crude oil and a pipe running across its front wall would surely collect petroleum gas from its output. These pipes can be extended and additional refineries can be easily placed in between them, with the same orientation as the first. Small electric poles running alongside the crude oil pipe would be able to power the refineries.

Technique: Sulfur plant row

The easy way to arrange sulfur producing chemical plants is to lay them out in a row with 1 tile of space between each pair, although it is also worth noting that your practically need very few such plants because of how fast they work. The key to this design is to turn the chemical plants sideways, so that the output of one plant faces the input of the other as they are arranged in row.

Afterwards, a pipe is run along both side walls of the chemical plants. One of the pipes has petroleum gas and the other has water. Use the cursor to check if the petroleum gas input is located next to the petroleum gas pipe. If not, you can simply rotate all the chemical plants by 180 degrees to make the inputs line up correctly.

Once the inputs are lined up, add a single pipe unit in front of each input so that an L-shaped pipe connects the input with its respective pipe. Since the sulfur plant output pipes produce nothing, they do not connect.

The last step is to collect the sulfur. This is done by placing long handed inserters that face the chemical plants, one per plant, alongside one of the fluid pipes without any gaps. The inserters will reach over the pipes and take out sulfur from the plants and place the sulfur on the tiles one beyond the tiles behind them. This marks where the sulfur output belt is placed, one tile away from the long handed inserters. As for powering the row, a small electric pole placed next to each inserter would be able to reach the respective chemical plant.

Technique: Plastic plant row

Chemical plants that produce plastic can be arranged in a row with zero or one tiles of space in between, and all facing the same direction. A single pipe is run along the back walls of the plants to supply them with petroleum gas.

On the front side of each plant, a small electric pole, a regular inserter, and long handed inserter is added, with one being for the input and the other for the output. By the inserters the coal input belt and the plastic output belt can be placed.

Technique: Sulfuric acid plants row

Sulfuric acid plants can be placed in simple rows sandwiched between pipes, although one or two would be enough for most cases.

The plants can be placed all facing the same direction, with zero or one tiles of space in between each pair. Then a water pipe is run across the back wall and an empty pipe is run along the front wall, for it to collect sulfuric acid.

After settling the recipes, long handed inserters to feed solid ingredients are placed by either of the pipes, one or two per plant. You can either have one belt with iron plates and sulfur on its left and right lanes, or you can have a belt of iron on one side of the plants and a belt of sulfur on the other side.

At the end of the row, or perhaps in a nearby area connected via underground pipes, you can set up a tier 2 assembling machine that takes empty barrels and fills them with sulfuric acid, so that the acid can be transported to other parts of the factory via belts. Alternatively, you can have the acid pipes travel across the factory.

Technique: Battery plants row

Battery plants can be placed like plastic plants, in a row with one or zero tiles of space in between them. A pipe is run along the back walls of all the plants to supply the sulfuric acid. Along the fronts, you need a regular inserter and a long handed inserter each, for item inputs and outputs. Beyond the inserters, place an input belt with iron and copper on its lanes, and the battery output belt. If you prefer to have one type of item per belt, you can use three belts and the techniques to reach belts that are three tiles away.

Full Tutorial: Setting Up an area for basic oil products

In this explanation we will start with a crude oil pipe entering the area from the north and build towards the south. The complete area requires a supply of crude oil from the north, water from the south, and then from either east or west coal, copper plates, and iron plates. The area produces sulfur, sulfuric acid, batteries, and plastic. The area needs to be at least 30 tiles high and 15 tiles wide and can be expanded to produce also explosives and solid fuel.

The setup in summary:

• Top row: Horizontal crude oil pipe

• Below it: Oil refineries

• Below them: Horizontal petroleum gas pipe

• On its west end: One sulfur production plant with a horizontal water pipe below it.

• Below the pipe: One long-handed sulfur output inserter, the sulfur output belt.

• Below the sulfur belt: regular inserter for sulfur input, below which is one sideways chemical plant producing sulfuric acid, and to its east is a storage tank and then the chemical plant producing batteries.

• Below the battery plant: inserters and two transport belts for supplying copper and iron and taking away produced batteries.

• Optional: Explosives plant to the west of the sulfuric acid plant or east of the battery plants.

• Meanwhile on the east end of the petroleum gas pipe: Two chemical plants for plastic, connected directly to the horizontal petroleum gas pipe.

• Below them: Inserters, a belt for taking away the produced plastic, and a belt below it for supplying coal.

Now to build this set up in steps:

1. Producing petroleum gas. Add a small underground segment to the crude oil pipeline using pipes to ground, at least one high, so that you can cross over the pipe.

2. Next, build a horizontal pipe segment for the crude oil that is ten to fifteen long and centered on the southward exit.

3. Using cursor mode, place two oil refineries directly south of the pipe without a gap. The refineries need to be facing south (todo: verify direction) and they can be touching or not. The horizontal pipe can be extended to add more refineries. The horizontal pipe extending beyond the limits of the refineries will ensure that at least one part of the pipe interfaces with the refinery crude oil inputs.

4. Place small or medium electric poles along the north side of the horizontal pipe. Their supply area reaches over the pipe and covers the refineries.

5. Select the oil refineries using cursor mode and set their recipes to basic oil processing. If everything is set up correctly, you will hear the building operate for a few seconds with the sound of rushing fluids and smoke being blasted from the chimney. If unsuccessful, check that there is oil in the pipe, that there is power in the electric poles, and that the refineries have the correct rotations.

6. Along the south walls of the refineries, the petroleum gas outputs are on the west corners. In order to access all outputs together, add a new horizontal pipe running along the south walls of the refineries without a gap, covering the entire row. This pipe will begin filling with petroleum gas immediately and the refineries will resume operation.

7. To one end of the new pipe, place a storage tank. The best place to place it is on the north side, in line with the refineries. It will be used to monitor the gas levels in the system.

8. Producing sulfur. The sulfur production will be on the west side, due to the orientation of chemical plants that produce sulfur. Place a chemical plant south of the petroleum gas pipe, without a gap, at the west end of the pipe. Rotate the chemical plant to make it face east (todo: verify direction).

9. Lay down the third horizontal pipe, exactly three units along the south wall of the chemical plant. Then extend it one more tile to the west. This will be a water pipe.

10. On the west wall of the chemical plant, make the north and south pipes wrap around the corners so that they can interface with the two chemical plant inputs. Make sure to leave the middle west tile empty so that the two pipes do not connect to each other. If petroleum gas has entered the southern pipe, it needs to be flushed out or the pipe must be rebuilt from scratch.

11. Bring down a power from the west side of the refineries and then set the chemical plant to produce sulfur. The same setup can be copied to the west by extending the horizontal pipes to produce more sulfur, although a single plant is usually enough.

12. Add an underground pipe facing north to the western corner of the water pipe so that pipe has a vertical segment that you can cross over. The gap needs to be 2 tiles high.

13. Add 3 pipe units going downward and then add another underground segment with a gap that is 2 tiles high. At the southern end of the gap, add a single pipe unit. This marks the end of the water pipe. You can extend it to the east, west, or south so that it is connected to a water supply. When the pipe system fills with water, the sulfur plant will start producing.

14. Producing sulfuric acid. To the east of the 3-high vertical water pipe segment add a chemical plant facing east (todo:verify direction). There should be 4 tiles of space between this chemical plant and the horizontal water pipe to its north. Set the plant to produce sulfuric acid. This plant will receive water from the vertical pipe to its west and output the acid to its east, when supplied.

15. Place an inserter facing north to the north of the acid plant. North of the inserter place a transport belt that faces east and extend it until the edge of the area. Finally, place a long handed inserter facing north just below the horizontal water pipe so that it outputs sulfur onto the belt. Connect electric poles.

16. To the south of the acid plant, add an inserter facing south and add a horizontal transport belt under the inserter.

17. Connect the new belt to your iron and copper supplier belt. The system should now produce sulfuric acid. A second acid production plant could be added on the other side of the vertical water pipe, although one plant is usually enough.

18. Place a vertical short pipe of 3 units long the east wall of the acid production plant. This will collect the output and provide a spot to pipe away sulfuric acid in the future.

19. Producing batteries. East of the vertical sulfuric acid pipe, place a new chemical plant.

20. Use inserters to take iron and copper from the supply belt below. Set the new plant to produce batteries, which it should begin to do now. Use a long handed inserter to output the batteries onto a second belt below the metal supplier. More battery production plants can be added to the east, by running the sulfuric acid pipe across the north walls of the plants, which are empty tiles.

21. Producing plastic. Head back to the horizontal petroleum gas pipe. On its eastern end add two chemical plants side by side, facing south (todo: verify direction), although one plant would also be enough at the start. The plants should take petroleum gas directly from the pipe on their north walls. They do not have to be wall-to-wall with each other or aligned vertically with anything else. Set these plants to produce plastic.

22. Place inserters facing north below the plastic production plants. Below, place a transport belt going east, as the plastic output belt.

23. Place long handed inserters facing south next to the other inserters. Add a second belt below the first one. This will be the coal input belt, and it should run just in between the plastic output belt and the sulfur output belt from earlier. Add electric poles to the rows reserved for inserters. Plastic production will begin as soon as the coal reaches the plants.

24. Producing explosives. The recipe requires sulfur, coal, and water. You have sulfur and coal belts in parallel, and water can be supplied. A practical spot for placing this plant would be on the west side of the vertical water pipe segment.

Next page: "Chapter 15: Electricity part 2: Larger electric poles, solar power, and accumulators"