Objective: Basic Oil Processing

Learn the essentials of basic oil processing in Factorio! This guide covers setting up oil extraction, refining crude oil into valuable products, and understanding their uses to power your factory's growth.

Alright, let's get your factory humming with some oil power! Basic oil processing is a pretty big step up from just smelting iron and copper, and it unlocks a whole new tier of production. Don't worry, we'll break it down so you can get those pipes flowing.

What's the Goal?

Basically, you're going to tap into underground oil fields, bring that crude oil back to your base, and then refine it into more useful liquids like petroleum gas, light oil, and heavy oil. These liquids are key ingredients for plastics, explosives, and even advanced science packs later on.

Getting Started with Oil

First things first, you'll need to find those oil fields. They look like little patches of dark, rocky ground on the map. You'll need to place an Offshore Pump (or an Oil Extractor if you're on land, though offshore is more common early on) on top of one of these patches. This pump will start sucking up crude oil.

The crude oil needs to get to your base. You can't use belts for liquids, so you'll need Pipes. Connect your pump to your base using pipes. You might need a few pumps if the oil field isn't huge, and remember that pipes have a limited flow rate, so you might need parallel pipes for high throughput later.

Refining Crude Oil

Once the crude oil reaches your base, you'll need a Chemical Plant to refine it. Place a Chemical Plant and feed it crude oil using an Inserter. Inside the Chemical Plant, you'll set up a refining recipe. The most basic one is:

• Crude Oil → Petroleum Gas, Light Oil, and Heavy Oil

You'll get a mix of these three products. Each one is useful, but they have different applications:

• Petroleum Gas: Used for plastics, sulfur, and advanced circuits. This is usually your priority.
• Light Oil: Used for explosives and lubricant. You can also crack it down into petroleum gas if you have too much.
• Heavy Oil: Used for lubricant and can be cracked down into light oil, and then into petroleum gas.

Managing Your Liquids

This is where it can get a little tricky. If you're not using one of the products fast enough, it'll back up in the pipes and eventually stop the Chemical Plant from producing anything. You'll need a plan for all three!

• Cracking: You can set up other Chemical Plants with specific recipes to 'crack' heavy oil into light oil, and light oil into petroleum gas. This lets you convert excess heavier oils into the lighter ones you might need more of.
• Storage: You can use Storage Tanks to hold excess liquids. These are super important for buffering your production.
• Balancing: You'll often need to balance the output. A common setup is to use one Chemical Plant for the initial crude oil cracking, and then have separate plants to crack heavy oil to light oil, and light oil to petroleum gas, using pumps and pipes to control the flow.

What's Next?

With your basic oil processing up and running, you've unlocked a ton of new possibilities. You can now start producing plastics for red circuits, sulfur for batteries, and lubricant for those speedy blue belts and trains. Keep an eye on your liquid levels and adjust your cracking ratios as needed. Happy refining!