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I can't get the refinery to work. It says fluid ingredient shortage even though there is plenty of oil. Is there a guide for oil processing?

Oil refinery has 2 inputs for fluids and only one of them (marked with icon of crude oil) accepts crude oil. In your screenshot crude oil pipes go to the other input which does not accept crude oil.

thanks for the help. It works now

hello wrote: ↑

Sun Feb 28, 2021 4:50 pm

I can't get the refinery to work. It says fluid ingredient shortage even though there is plenty of oil. Is there a guide for oil processing?

oil.png

completely unrelated but if you use underground pipes instead of above ground long pipeline like in your screenshot, the throughput will be much better. underground pipes 'teleport' fluid over more than 1 tile but above ground pipes slowly transfer between each tile.

The other input is for water later on when you unlock a better, but more complicated recipe. That's also when the other outputs get used. For now you don't need water, but it doesn't hurt to plan for the future.

In general it's easier to transport the crude oil somewhere closer to your base and refine it there. For petroleum it doesn't make much of a difference, but later on you also produce other things and you need all of them in more or less the same place. So it's better to move just one fluid. And it allows you to bring in oil from other oil fields to one refinery area

Underground pipes also have the advantage that you can walk around the area much more easily