Best way to transfer oil?

[Thryden]

Ok, so as I've said in other threads, I'm not new to the game, I have a couple hundred hours ingame. However, I"ve never been too organized with liquids and I"m determined to be better in my newest factory.

So I've found a good spot with several oil splotches near some water. There is also a coal patch nearby. However, it's far away from my main factory. My question is, what is the best way to transfer it over?

I know trains would be the obvious choice, but should I barrel the oil and water, send them over to my main factory, then turn it into light, heavy, and petroleum? Or should I make those over next to the oil, then transfer it over to my factory with a train. And since I have coal nearby, should I also make sulfur and plastic right there too? One more question, would barreling liquids in a regular cargo car or using tank cars be better?

Thanks for the help everyone!

[Phoenix]

As of 0.16 a wagon can only hold one type of fluid so I wouldn't turn them into light heavy and petrol before sending it to your main factory. For the barreling bit: https://forums.factorio.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=48185
*keep in mind fluid wagons are changed in 0.16.x: they hold 25k units max, weigh the same as a cargo wagon, and can hold one fluid only.

[Killcreek2]

1> Definately ship the raw crude to your main refinery area. As oil wells deplete, they produce less output so refining on-site is troublesome at best.
It is better to pick a good location for a refinery & ship in items, than to cram it in next to some resources which will run out / deplete anyway.

2> Tanker wagons are easiest to setup, & if you are on 0.16.x they are still best choice after the barrel capacity nerf normalisation.

3> Using (up-to) 3 small pumps dirctly between the wagons & storage tanks gives fastest emptying times at the refinery, but filling times at the wells are not worth worrying about (1 pump & tank combo per wagon is fine).

4> Build your main refinery near(ish) some water, so you can pipe it in easily. Both crude & water are used in large amounts, so are (imho) better to pipe than barrel up.

5> Set your refinery up with lots of expansion space, I suggest assigning dedicated blocks for each process (crude refining, HO cracking, LO cracking, solid fuel (use light oil), plastic. & some smaller areas for lube & flamer fuel, acid & explosives, batteries.

6> You can do everything oil-related in one place, or you could ship certain products elsewhere for processing. (My latest world processes crude, cracks oils, & produces lube & rocket fuel in one place, but ships the petgas out to another block nearby, where it is made into plastic, batteries + acid. ~ This was to split the required train station into 3 smaller stations, & so reduce the traffic bottleneck at the junction(s) to the main tracks.)

7> A simple-but-effective control system to automagically manage cracking can be setup with a few wires & no combinator knowledge ~ KoS has a nice section in her "Observations, tips & tricks" guide, if you are not already familliar with how to set one up it is worth a look.

8> Do not store fluids in the refinery. 1 measuring tank per fluid is all you need to monitor output levels for the control circuit.
**Exception** ~ At train stations a buffer is required for any fluid transfers, I recommend 1-2 storage tanks per wagon. Otherwise, keep the crude oil in the train wagons parked in a stacker at the refinery ~ the train wagons are already the storage, so no need to double-up with storage tanks too.

[The Chaotic Coder]

I like fluid wagons because of convenience. A regular cargo wagon full of barrels holds more oil, but it's also a large investment in steel for all the barrels you'd need and you have to have barrelling/unbarrelling machines at each end. A fluid wagon only needs a pump to load/unload directly into pipes.

Originally posted by Bramblestar:

should I barrel the oil and water, send them over to my main factory, then turn it into light, heavy, and petroleum? Or should I make those over next to the oil, then transfer it over to my factory with a train. And since I have coal nearby, should I also make sulfur and plastic right there too?

Depends on if you plan on making a megafactory with train outposts for manufacturing various things, which is what I'm doing now. I have all my oil wells filling up trains, which then go to refinery outposts (2 of them so far) that process the oil and fill trains with light oil, heavy oil, and gas. Refinery outposts are located next to water sources so they don't need a train for that. Then a separate outpost receives trains of petroleum gas and coal, and produces plastic. Sulphur is produced and turned into acid and then batteries at a separate outpost (also next to its own water). A single traincar of acid from this outpost goes to the blue circuit plants.

Since you're new to the game you probably aren't planning on doing anything that huge yet. You already have the water at your start location, so I would suggest just bringing oil and coal (in separate trains would be best) and do the refining at home.

[Thryden]

Originally posted by jchardin64:

Since you're new to the game you probably aren't planning on doing anything that huge yet. You already have the water at your start location, so I would suggest just bringing oil and coal (in separate trains would be best) and do the refining at home.

I'm not new to the game... I have a couple hundred hours of gameplay. However, like I said in the topic post, I'm not very organized when it comes to pipes. I've never used trains before to transfer liquid, I"ve alway piped liquid to where I need it. This game though, the oil patch I found that I want to use is very far away from my factory, so piping it is not an option. Also, I haven't played much since tank cars have been released, so I wasn't sure how good they were.

I think what I'll do is ship the crude oil through tank cars to an area designated as my refinery, which will produce heavy, light, petroleum, lubrican, sulfur and plastic with plenty of room for expansion. I'll make batteries and red circuts elsewhere, then ship those along with plastic, petroleum, and lubricant to my main bus.

Sound good? :)

[The Chaotic Coder]

Sounds okay to me.

That's part of what Factorio is about, figuring out what works best for you. There is no right or wrong way to play.

[Killcreek2]

Originally posted by jchardin64:

That's part of what Factorio is about, figuring out what works best for you. There is no right or wrong way to play.

+1

Originally posted by Bramblestar:

I think what I'll do is ship the crude oil through tank cars to an area designated as my refinery, which will produce heavy, light, petroleum, lubrican, sulfur and plastic with plenty of room for expansion. I'll make batteries and red circuts elsewhere, then ship those along with plastic, petroleum, and lubricant to my main bus.

Sound good? :)

Sounds lovely.

Do leave plenty of room for the pipework inside the refinery area: you may need to add extra pipes in later when expanding, so leave extra room for them. It also allows you to keep the pipe runs neat & organised. (I often build a "fluid bus" of parallel pipes running through the refinery area which the sections tap into, with some extra space on each side.)

[Thryden]

ok, thanks for the help everyone!