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How do I bring oil home?
- 1
Find a pocket
Oil lies in lodes under the plains, under seeps of bitumen. See how to find oil.
- 2
Craft a bucket
Three iron ingots in a V. A bucket holds one cubic metre (64 voxels) of one liquid.
- 3
Scoop it
Left click on oil: standing, the bucket takes the oil of the whole aligned 1 m cube; crouching, a single voxel.
- 4
Pour it in
Right click the refinery with the full bucket: it empties into its crude tank. For a factory, bring the crude by pipe.
How to get it
Find a bitumen puddle or stain, dig down along its conduit to the oil lens under its air pocket, then scoop it with a bucket (standing: a whole cubic metre) or pump it with a field pump driven by a shaft.
What it is for
Into the refinery: kerosene, petrol, diesel, natural gas, tar and plastic; a bucket of crude oil is also fuel (20 s) for any fire machine.
Why it exists
Oil is hidden on purpose: small lenses are enough for plastic, a giant lode feeds a factory, and finding them takes digging.
What does the refinery make?
The refinery is a copper column over a steel firebox. Pick what it makes on its screen. Crude oil comes in by bucket or by the pipe on its side; each cut waits in its own tank and leaves by its own pipe, or into an empty bucket or cylinder held against it. The tar drops into a slot. When the gas holder is full, the natural gas burns off in its flare.
| Choice | Takes | Gives | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fractions | 1 m³ of crude oil | 16 voxels each of kerosene, petrol and diesel + 16 units of natural gas + 1 tar | 20 s |
| Plastic | 32 voxels of crude oil, or 32 units of natural gas | 2 plastic | 10 s |
| RP-1 | An empty dewar + 64 voxels of kerosene | A dewar of RP-1 (rocket kerosene) | 15 s |
How to get it
At the grid: 4 copper sheets round an empty centre with 2 small pipes on top, 2 steel plates and bolts in the bottom row. Place it, feed it fuel (or a powered small cable, 3 kW) and crude oil by pipe or bucket, and pick what it makes.
What it is for
Fractions for fuels and natural gas, plastic for electronics, and RP-1, the kerosene rocket propellant, into empty dewars.
Why it exists
The whole oil chain in one machine: one copper column, three choices, every product of crude oil.
What is each cut good for?
| Cut | Burns as fuel | Use |
|---|---|---|
| Petrol | 50 s a bucket | Fuel for generators and fires |
| Diesel | 60 s a bucket | The best liquid fuel for a generator |
| Kerosene | 40 s a bucket | Fuel, and RP-1 for rockets |
| Natural gas | 30 s a cylinder | Plastic; liquid methane at the gas plant |
| Tar | - | Asphalt, the large power cable, insulation |
Where do I keep and use the cuts?
- Store them: a tank holds 16 m³ of one liquid or one gas; the large tank holds more for a factory.
- Burn them: a generator takes oil, kerosene, petrol and diesel in its tank, and gives up to 5 kW to its cables.
- Go to space: RP-1 from the refinery, liquid oxygen and liquid methane from the gas plant fill the rocket's tanks. See rockets.
- Tar also comes from bitumen at the crafting grid: 16 voxels give 2 tar.
Questions
Can the refinery burn the oil it refines?
No. A bucket of its own feed is refused in its fuel slot. Feed the fire with coal, wood or another fuel, or put it on a small power cable.
Do I need electricity?
No: the refinery burns fuel. On a powered small cable (3 kW) its heating element replaces the fire.
Where does the tar go?
Into the refinery's tar slot, taken by hand or by a conveyor.
Updated