Getting the Oil Refinery

[Vinzz_zzz 2]

I was wondering if anyone unlocked the Oil Refinery yet. Seems to me the requirements are pretty high!

 

I have 3 oil wells positioned on high oil-yield land (for a total of about 12 oil jacks), a Trade depot, and also the Petroleum HQ. Now I need a Daily profit of 160,000 in the HQ to upgrade it, and I'm about half way there, but the number seems to stagnate (or is VERY slow to increase). I need the upgrade to eventually get the Oil Refinery!! Any tips on increasing the daily profits of the HQ? Should I dramatically increase my oil production to get there?

[Endureth 37]

I got one.  It's pretty huge.  Had to demolish 3 blocks to make space for it.  So lame, this game is.

[Ikikgud 0]

How'd you get it to unlock?  I can't get the refining division of the Petrol HQ to open, only the commerce one.

[Vinzz_zzz 2]

I think you have to level up your Petrol HQ, which requires BIG daily profits from oil. Endureth, what kind of oil production did you have going to get it to unlock?

[czNemesis 8]

Just got that refinery half hour ago. I think the problem is that the prices of the oil are at their lowest, so that's why it's so big of a problem to get that daily amount of income. Well nevertheless I handled that by turning my 5 trading depot to stock oil, waited for them to get full and when clock hits the 0:00am mark I turned them all to sell. About 6pm I managed to get past over that income threshold and pay 400k for the HQ upgrade, which then allowed me to build the refinery.

[Vinzz_zzz 2]

FIVE Trading Depots at full oil stock upgrade? Am I reading correctly?

[epyrion 1]

I have 2 fully upgraded trade depots to support my 3 oil wells with 26 pumping jacks. I very very close to getting that refinery. I am at 20k population making 4k+ an hour form city services. i make about 140k per month on trading oil.

 

The oil prices are very low. i get 4k+ simoleons per 1000 barrels and i make about 26k barrels per day. 

 

This is all fine but i only have about 4 months of supply left below my city... I am definitely going to run out of oil before i make back the 400k I will be spending on the refinery.

 

My question is: is it still profitable if I import oil and then make it into fuel/plastic and then sell it?

[hym 358]

My question is: is it still profitable if I import oil and then make it into fuel/plastic and then sell it?

 

That really depends on the prices.  During the beta, I tried that strategy, and while it was still profitable, it took a huge bite out of the profits.

 

Also, the supply calculations were very inaccurate in the beta.  I don't know if that was fixed with the game launch, but I suspect you probably have more than 4 months of oil.

[Vinzz_zzz 2]

The first Petroleum HQ upgrade (for 160k daily profits) only gets you Commerce division. This is doable, and I just got it. The next upgrade (800k daily profits) gets you the Refinery division, which finally allows the construction of the Oil refinery. At the current rate of 4.5k per 1,000 barrels, you'd need approximately a dozen Trade Depots with about 50 oil storage upgrades filled to max when the day starts. Then you kick in the exports and rake in the 800k.

 

Thing is it makes NO sense to have to build so many Trade depots to reach that amount.

 

Feels like crude oil should be worth a lot more on the market.

[epyrion 1]

Thing is it makes NO sense to have to build so many Trade depots to reach that amount.

 

Feels like crude oil should be worth a lot more on the market.

Except that the prices are dependant on global supply and demand (as far as i know). It seems alot of people are drilling for oil. Maxis should have made the prices constant regardless of how many people buy and sell oil.

 

Edit: I just got my oil refinery upgrade and i realized that one refinery doesn't refine fast enough (even fully upgraded) so now i have built 3 fully upgraded refineries and the oil production/consumption is balanced now. So now i have 3 oil wells, 27 pumping jacks, 3 refineries, 4 oil trade depots and 1 fuel/plastic trade depot. 1 Oil HQ and 1 Refining division.

 

Now i kinda get why the game wants you to hit a certain level of oil production before giving you the upgrades. Its all about pacing. Once you get the refineries you can immediately start mass producing plastic/fuel and exporting them, instead of building from ground zero.

 

Income is much faster now, but i had to add city services like water,power,sewage in a very short amount of time and i had to dezone commercial and zone in more residental to support all of the above.

 

I am at 300k simoleons now and earning 1k+/hr but my fuel/plastic exports are bringing in cash like crazy.

 

Edit 2: How do i find out the conversion rates between oil and plastic/ oil and fuel?

[Endureth 37]

I have 2 fully upgraded trade depots to support my 3 oil wells with 26 pumping jacks. I very very close to getting that refinery. I am at 20k population making 4k+ an hour form city services. i make about 140k per month on trading oil.

 

That's about what I had.  I hand 3 trade depots working strictly oil, then three oil wells but they weren't all full.  Once I got enough for it, I rearranged my trade depots to work better over all.  In my new game I think I'll get it much easier and have planned room for it when the time comes.  Running the new game as a City Journal as well.

[Vinzz_zzz 2]

Am I correct in saying that the Refinery Division requires 800k daily profits to unlock?

[fulgencia 0]

 the speed of selling oil depend on your traffic.you should place the trade dept close to the exit of the city, and put all deliver trucks work. and the way from a oil machine to the trade dept should be no traffic jams.(I am not sure you can understand my Chinese English,but I am trying my best) if a oil machine works well ,it should produce 120,000 units per day .and put more industrial zone, they will use many oil too and it is important way to sell your oil.   

[ssixxxon 0]

I set aside almost half of the allowable area for my oil operations to grow.  To get to my refineries, I had (5) oil facilities with approx 45 pump jacks going.  From there make sure to have 3 or 4 trade depots doing nothing but trading petrol on the global market with a clear drive to the city entrance.

 

Once I unlocked the refinery, I added (1) refinery, switched a trade depot to hold fuel instead of petrol, and continued that cyclically.  I eventually went back down to only 2 trade depots and prob could reduce that further.  Currently have (6) refineries with 4 fuel refineries at each and making BANK!

 

On my server, petrol was selling for 4.5k, plastic @ 11.2k, and fuel @ 21k.  The petrol converts 1 to 1 when making fuel or plastic.

 

(TIP FOR REFINERIES: Once you plop it immediately bulldoze the plastics extension.  This way you can add (4) fuel converters to the rear of the facility and keep it compact as we all know how precious space is in this game.  The cost of this is quickly recouped with how much FUEL is worth on the global market.)

[epyrion 1]

I set aside almost half of the allowable area for my oil operations to grow.  To get to my refineries, I had (5) oil facilities with approx 45 pump jacks going.  From there make sure to have 3 or 4 trade depots doing nothing but trading petrol on the global market with a clear drive to the city entrance.

 

Once I unlocked the refinery, I added (1) refinery, switched a trade depot to hold fuel instead of petrol, and continued that cyclically.  I eventually went back down to only 2 trade depots and prob could reduce that further.  Currently have (6) refineries with 4 fuel refineries at each and making BANK!

 

On my server, petrol was selling for 4.5k, plastic @ 11.2k, and fuel @ 21k.  The petrol converts 1 to 1 when making fuel or plastic.

 

How long did it take till you ran out of oil? do you make just fuel? what about plastic? I guess it makes sense that you would specialise in fuel if oil converts to fuel and plastic 1:1 and fuel sells for more. How do you find that out? i always thought oil converts to plastic 1:2. In my server (East Europe 1) plastic sells for 12k and fuel for 24k per lot.

 

Also, half your city? how do you get workers to work your oil wells and refineries?

[Vinzz_zzz 2]

I set aside almost half of the allowable area for my oil operations to grow.  To get to my refineries, I had (5) oil facilities with approx 45 pump jacks going.  From there make sure to have 3 or 4 trade depots doing nothing but trading petrol on the global market with a clear drive to the city entrance.

 

Once I unlocked the refinery, I added (1) refinery, switched a trade depot to hold fuel instead of petrol, and continued that cyclically.  I eventually went back down to only 2 trade depots and prob could reduce that further.  Currently have (6) refineries with 4 fuel refineries at each and making BANK!

 

When you upgrade the Petroleum HQ the first time, do you get to choose between the Commerce Division and the Refining Division?

[epyrion 1]

I set aside almost half of the allowable area for my oil operations to grow.  To get to my refineries, I had (5) oil facilities with approx 45 pump jacks going.  From there make sure to have 3 or 4 trade depots doing nothing but trading petrol on the global market with a clear drive to the city entrance.

 

 

Once I unlocked the refinery, I added (1) refinery, switched a trade depot to hold fuel instead of petrol, and continued that cyclically.  I eventually went back down to only 2 trade depots and prob could reduce that further.  Currently have (6) refineries with 4 fuel refineries at each and making BANK!

When you upgrade the Petroleum HQ the first time, do you get to choose between the Commerce Division and the Refining Division?

 

Yes you get to choose. I really don't get why you need commerce division but you can plop it if you want at the first upgrade. 

[Major_Heartfire 1]

Commerce division would allow you to use the Oil/Fuel/Plastic containers at the Trade Port. It can store your resources in much larger quantities. The cargo ships will come 3 times a day for your resources, and trains (cargo trains can only be made from the Trade Port) come every hour. You can unlock the trade port by just trading a lot, but the individual resource storage containers at the Trade Port have to be unlocked by the relevant HQ (Metals/Petroleum/Trading).

 

I've been having a lot of trouble reaching the necessary requirement for upgrading my Petro HQ even once. I guess I just didn't realize that the game DOES intend to require the player to just have a HUGE amount of oil getting pumped. For some reason I thought it would be ok with just 10 - 20 oil derricks running. Most of the above players are describing 35 - 50 derricks. I'll keep that in mind.

[SmartDrv 0]

The first upgrade I did to the Petroleum HQ was to get me access to the refinery.  Since the next upgrade was quite steep in terms of required production, I built a Trade HQ and built the Petroleum division which gave me access to the Trade Depot (which is quite nice if you have water/rail)

[Rhadamant5186 19]

Honestly you can get the oil refinery with just 1 pump/jack.

 

1. Figure out how many barrels of oil you need to sell in a day to meet your daily profit requirement
2. Build a depot, fill it with oil.
3. Once a trade depot is full, turn it off and build another one.
4. Once all the depots you need for your daily profit requirements are filled, turn them back on and wait for workers to staff them.
5. Make sure your depots have more than one truck.
6. Turn off 'accept local deliveries' so that your depots can focus on selling oil rather than shuffling it around from your oil rig.
7. Right when the game's clock strikes 12:01 AM instruct your depots to sell the oil.
8. Meet your daily profit goal.
9. Sell / turn off your unnecessary depots once they are empty or unwanted.

[nheowie 0]

 I spend hours to get the Oil refinery to produce Fuel. Then I got the Trade port to export it to the global market by freight train.

 

And now it doesn't work! my fuel just keeps piling up and now I have 35k barrels of fuel and the Train wont come and pick it up :S

 

Is this a bug? or am I doing something wrong? Its driving me crazy!

[Major_Heartfire 1]

They won't come immediately, it will take time. Ships come every 8 hours. Not sure about trains...

 

Trucks come every hour.

[nheowie 0]

Yeh, I know the train is supposed to come every 6hours...Mine didn't come in 3days which totally messed up my city since that was my main income.

I just heard from other people that they experienced the same thing and that it might be server related.

[cyclinglen 0]

To be clear when you say " turning my 5 trading depot to stock oil," do you mean changing it from export to just import?

[Skelterbug 0]

To be clear when you say " turning my 5 trading depot to stock oil," do you mean changing it from export to just import?

 

No I think what he means is that you DON'T export/import, and untick the local deliveries. If you do this only oil when come in to the trading depot and no oil will go out! Once filled, turn it off, repeat for additional depots and finally turn them all on at once to maximize trading.

[Zoogaloo 0]

 the speed of selling oil depend on your traffic.you should place the trade dept close to the exit of the city, and put all deliver trucks work. and the way from a oil machine to the trade dept should be no traffic jams.(I am not sure you can understand my Chinese English,but I am trying my best) if a oil machine works well ,it should produce 120,000 units per day .and put more industrial zone, they will use many oil too and it is important way to sell your oil.   

 

Your English is great! I understood you completely.

[Ferditjuh 0]

To be clear when you say " turning my 5 trading depot to stock oil," do you mean changing it from export to just import?

 

No I think what he means is that you DON'T export/import, and untick the local deliveries. If you do this only oil when come in to the trading depot and no oil will go out! Once filled, turn it off, repeat for additional depots and finally turn them all on at once to maximize trading.

 

Actually, dont untick the local deliveries, this will prevent your oil wells from delivering the oil to your trade depots. Just put it on "Use locally" and it will stockpile the oil because you dont have any building using up your oil, unless you have an oil powerplant. I unlocked the first Petroleum HQ upgrade this morning with the following:

 

3 completely upgraded trade depots with 4 trucks each and only oil storage, filled to the top with crude oil

2 completely upgraded oil wells with 4 trucks each, 10 pumps each

 

Make sure there arent any traffic jams at your highway entrance ( dont build too much residential, you make money from the oil anyway ) otherwise your delivery trucks get blocked from selling the oil on the global market.

 

Dont use your Petroleum upgrade to buy the commerce division, you can build a Trade HQ instead with a Petroleum division once you get enough daily profit to get the trade port with upgrades, which is easy enough once you get the oil refinery and start making fuel.

 

@nheowie: I havent encountered the train delivery bug yet so im afraid i cant help with that. Are you sure you built the trade port upgrade freight station and not the passenger train station? And did you select to export the oil ?

 

I hope this helps you guys out

[cfn1208 0]

Hmm

 

seems to me that building all these oil wells Ect rather defeats the object, I thought this was Sim City not Sim Oil land, sure I understand the concept of special regions but 

the time effort and money it takes to do so seems like a waste. Why not have a more realistic target to achieve so you can still have a sprawling city with a good industry base

lots of sims and other interesting buildings.

 

or is it just me?... 

[Cob92 360]

Thing is it makes NO sense to have to build so many Trade depots to reach that amount.

 

Feels like crude oil should be worth a lot more on the market.

Except that the prices are dependant on global supply and demand (as far as i know). It seems alot of people are drilling for oil. Maxis should have made the prices constant regardless of how many people buy and sell oil.

 

I get the idea that the prices are locked right now. Oil starts off cheap because it is a raw resource like coal and ore.