Satisfactory Oil & Fuel Guide

Oil is the point where Satisfactory production becomes significantly more interconnected. Crude Oil is a fluid, Refineries often produce useful byproducts, and a blocked output can stop an otherwise healthy production line. This guide covers a dependable first oil setup in Update 1.2 before moving into the more elaborate alternate-recipe systems.

Unlock Oil Processing

Crude Oil processing begins with the Tier 5 Oil Processing milestone. Oil Extractors collect Crude Oil from resource nodes and Refineries convert it into products including Plastic, Rubber and Fuel.

Know your oil-node output

At 100% clock speed, an Oil Extractor produces 60 m³/min from an Impure node, 120 m³/min from a Normal node and 240 m³/min from a Pure node. Check the available pipeline capacity before overclocking or combining several sources.

Plastic and Rubber create Heavy Oil Residue

The standard Plastic recipe consumes 30 m³ Crude Oil/min and produces 20 Plastic/min plus 10 m³ Heavy Oil Residue/min. Standard Rubber also consumes 30 m³ Crude Oil/min and produces 20 Rubber/min, but creates 20 m³ Heavy Oil Residue/min.

That byproduct matters. If Heavy Oil Residue has nowhere to go, the Refinery output backs up and Plastic or Rubber production eventually stops. Design the byproduct route at the same time as the main product line.

Standard Fuel production

The standard Fuel recipe consumes 60 m³ Crude Oil/min and produces 40 m³ Fuel/min plus 30 Polymer Resin/min. Polymer Resin is another byproduct that needs an outlet if the Fuel Refinery is expected to run continuously.

Fuel-Powered Generators

The Fuel-Powered Generator is unlocked by the Tier 5 Petroleum Power milestone. At 100% clock speed it produces 250 MW and consumes standard Fuel at 20 m³/min.

That means one standard Fuel Refinery producing 40 m³/min can supply two Fuel-Powered Generators, providing 500 MW of gross generating capacity before accounting for the power consumed by the Oil Extractor, Refinery and supporting infrastructure.

Build the first oil plant for reliability

For the first oil site, keep the flow understandable. Separate Plastic, Rubber and power production where practical, provide storage or processing for byproducts, and leave space for extra Refineries and pipes. Fluids are much easier to troubleshoot when the factory is not a compressed knot of pipes built during a moment of misplaced confidence.

Alternate recipes come later

Hard Drive research can unlock powerful petrochemical alternatives such as Heavy Oil Residue, Diluted Fuel, Recycled Plastic and Recycled Rubber. These can dramatically improve crude-oil efficiency, but they should be treated as optimisation options rather than requirements for a first Tier 5 oil factory.

Worked build: four Fuel-Powered Generators from one normal oil node

On a normal-purity Crude Oil node, a single Oil Extractor at 100% produces 120 m³ Crude Oil/min. Use two Refineries at 100% running the standard Fuel recipe. Each consumes 60 m³ Crude Oil/min and outputs 40 m³ Fuel/min plus 30 Polymer Resin/min. Together they provide 80 m³ Fuel/min and produce 60 Polymer Resin/min.

Four Fuel-Powered Generators each consume 20 m³ standard Fuel/min and produce 250 MW. The four-generator installation therefore supplies 1,000 MW gross, with no surplus Fuel when all generators operate continuously at 100%.

Required equipment and inputs

• 1 Oil Extractor on a normal Crude Oil node: 120 m³/min, 40 MW operating draw.
• 2 Refineries using the standard Fuel recipe: 60 m³/min oil each, 40 m³/min Fuel each, 30 Polymer Resin/min each and 30 MW operating draw per Refinery.
• 4 Fuel-Powered Generators: each consumes 20 m³ Fuel/min; 1,000 MW gross total.
• Byproduct: transport or use 60 Polymer Resin/min continuously. A backed-up Polymer Resin output will stop Fuel production.

The extractor and the two Refineries draw 100 MW combined. That leaves 900 MW before optional pumps, polymer processing and any other site equipment, rather than 1,000 MW of truly spare power. Supply power to the extractor and refineries during commissioning.

Construction sequence

1. Place the Oil Extractor and connect a Mk.1 pipeline supplying both Refineries; the combined 120 m³/min is below the pipe's 300 m³/min maximum.
2. Set both Refineries to the standard Fuel recipe and connect their liquid Fuel outputs to the generator supply manifold.
3. Connect two Fuel-Powered Generators per Refinery, or combine 80 m³/min on a suitable shared pipe, keeping access to inspect the connection.
4. Send all 60 Polymer Resin/min into a working processing route or an appropriate AWESOME Sink connection; never allow the solid output to fill indefinitely.
5. Prime the Fuel lines while extraction and Refinery power is available. Bring the generators online and check steady Fuel consumption and Polymer Resin disposal.

Common failures

• Generators periodically stop: look for an incomplete Fuel supply, blocked Polymer Resin, inadequate Oil extraction or an exhausted start-up power supply.
• Oil backs up: check whether a downstream Fuel or Polymer Resin output is blocked rather than increasing the Oil Extractor's clock speed.
• Fuel will not reach an elevated generator: check head lift and place Pipeline Pumps where required. Pipe flow capacity and elevation are separate constraints.
• Grid shows 1,000 MW generation but less spare power: account for the Oil Extractor, Refineries, downstream byproduct processing and any Pipeline Pumps.

This arrangement is a reproducible standard-recipe calculation, not a saved, in-game-tested blueprint. References: Oil Extractor, Fuel, Fuel-Powered Generator and Polymer Resin from the official Satisfactory Wiki.

Continue the progression

Return to the Satisfactory Progression Guide or browse the Satisfactory Guides hub.

Steel Production Guide · Progression Guide