Bitumen production and prices too high

[virgilio.dias]

As the title says I think that both the production and prices of bitumen are too high.

For every 250t of oil a refinery produces 125t of fuel and 75t of bitumen, but the actual productivity of bitumen out of an oil barrel is only 3%!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_refinery

So, out of the 250t of oil we should produce ~6t of bitumen, 194t of fuel and I am imagining that the remaining 50t is residue and waste.

And the price of bitumen per ton is too high! At the beginning of the game, a ton of bitumen cost $233.36 to buy while fuel costs $143.76 per ton. How can bitumen cost more than fuel?

When we build a refinery and start to produce fuel and bitumen, these two issues cause an overproduction of bitumen that cannot be absorbed by the internal economy and a huge amount of bitumen is going to be exported at huge profit, making the game too easy.

[BabaRoga]

So don't export the bitumen. Problem solved

[TheAmishStig]

Originally posted by BabaRoga:

So don't export the bitumen. Problem solved

Gotta do something with it [even if it's "dump the storage now and again"], as the refinery shuts down when either Bitumen or the Fuel storage is full [not just both].

[Comrade Joe]

Honestly I can't say having large revenues from exports ever bothered me in the game. It's basically the only way to maintain a functional economy in the game until you reach self-sufficiency.
I would agree however that the game should be more realistic from a physics pov, or in this case chemistry :P
About the prices I don't what would be realistic. I too expected diesel to be more expensive than bitumen but don't have any knowledge on this part.

[BabaRoga]

Originally posted by TheAmishStig:

Originally posted by BabaRoga:

So don't export the bitumen. Problem solved

Gotta do something with it [even if it's "dump the storage now and again"], as the refinery shuts down when either Bitumen or the Fuel storage is full [not just both].

Yeah, that's true.

But it's easy enough to make the game harder for yourself.
I think bitumen is good for learning curve as it allows plenty of money while learning how to build an economy (I did that when started)

But yeah, option to only produce fuel would be neat

[sergetechone]

@TheAmishStig ... You tell me , when one of refinery products is full, the plant shut down ?

That will explain why the refinery production "slow down" when the bitumen tank is full. That mean I have to build a train and rail to the border and try to empty the bitumen tanks as fast as possible or I will get a "Factorio" refinery shut down. so my fuel production is up and running.

[TheAmishStig]

Originally posted by sergetechone:

@TheAmishStig ... You tell me , when one of refinery products is full, the plant shut down ?

That will explain why the refinery production "slow down" when the bitumen tank is full. That mean I have to build a train and rail to the border and try to empty the bitumen tanks as fast as possible or I will get a "Factorio" refinery shut down. so my fuel production is up and running.

You are correct!

It's what makes Bitumen such a good export; unless you're doing a lot of building, you really don't need it for anything, but have to produce it if you want fuel.

[MG83]

bitumen is not exactly bitumen . thats why. when you produce fuel from crude oil you get various grades of fuel and residues which you can use in various aspects. So consider bitumen as "general" aspect for various sets of materials.

[Piktas Keksas]

Solution to this issue I made - not to import crude oil. Refine only own produced oil. That makes game a bit more challenging. And yes, there is always overproduction of bitumen. But prices of bitumen and fuel, if you export it, drop pritty fast, so profits drop fast.

[tea_bush]

I think it would be best if oil split into more fractions, maybe there or four. Extra fractions could be used in power plants, ships and airplanes. Then the refinery would naturally produce less bitumen, as it should.

[MG83]

Originally posted by Piktas Keksas:

Solution to this issue I made - not to import crude oil. Refine only own produced oil. That makes game a bit more challenging. And yes, there is always overproduction of bitumen. But prices of bitumen and fuel, if you export it, drop pritty fast, so profits drop fast.

never dropped me fast . i exported with 2x refinary ?

[TheAmishStig]

Originally posted by tea_bush:

I think it would be best if oil split into more fractions, maybe there or four. Extra fractions could be used in power plants, ships and airplanes. Then the refinery would naturally produce less bitumen, as it should.

My thought is to reduce refinery production. I don't think there's any other factory in the game that outputs 4 tons of material for every 5 it consumes...the really common ones hover around 1 out per 2 in, and the steel mill is an atrocious 1 out per >10 in.

[MG83]

Originally posted by TheAmishStig:

Originally posted by tea_bush:

I think it would be best if oil split into more fractions, maybe there or four. Extra fractions could be used in power plants, ships and airplanes. Then the refinery would naturally produce less bitumen, as it should.

My thought is to reduce refinery production. I don't think there's any other factory in the game that outputs 4 tons of material for every 5 it consumes...the really common ones hover around 1 out per 2 in, and the steel mill is an atrocious 1 out per >10 in.

actually refinaries does not evaporate crude oil to air . they just distill it .

[tea_bush]

actually it does evaporate some oil, but the vapors are carefully gathered and made into petrol )

i guess, something is lost during cracking, but really not much

[MG83]

Originally posted by tea_bush:

actually it does evaporate some oil, but the vapors are carefully gathered and made into petrol )

i guess, something is lost during cracking, but really not much

"does not evaporate crude oil to air" :)

[virgilio.dias]

Not exporting the bitumen does not solve the issue, as it as already been said, something needs to be done with the bitumen produced and although I build a lot, is not enough to consume even the majority of what I produce.

The solution here is easy, reduce the output on the refinery and reduce the price. In today's prices, 1t of bitumen costs 1/4 of 1t of fuel, but in the game bitumen is more expensive than fuel and that does not make sense.

And even though I export lots of bitumen the prices don't go down. I'm in the '80s and bitumen is sold at $5606.50, while fuel (which i almost don't sell) is sold at $3840.02.

It is not necessary to export it to have a functional economy in the beginning. I only built the refinery later in the game and my economy was fine. Having it in the beginning is making the game too easy...