How it works
Resolve the oil processing bottlenecks that halt chemical science and plastics. Each stage in the walkthrough below has a distinct practical objective; complete the current supply or control loop before expanding it.
Practical advice
Start at crude oil pumpjacks and verify fluid transport to refineries. Identify whether the selected recipe and downstream pipes require multiple output products.
Mistakes to avoid
Never assume an unrelated blueprint or another version of Factorio has identical recipes, technology unlocks or machine ratios. Use the checkpoints in this guide to diagnose your own save.
Oil refining without blocked outputs: complete walkthrough
Trace fluid production
Start at crude oil pumpjacks and verify fluid transport to refineries. Identify whether the selected recipe and downstream pipes require multiple output products.
Give each fluid a destination
Route petroleum gas, light oil and heavy oil to known consumers or controlled processing. A full output can stall an entire recipe even when another product is urgently needed.
Connect chemical consumers
Build chemical plants for the intermediates you actually need. Label where plastic, sulfuric acid and other products enter electronics, batteries or mining chains.
Use conditional fluid controls
Read storage-tank contents on a circuit network and enable cracking or pumps against carefully chosen thresholds. Test each rule while tanks are only partially full.
Scale measured demand
Before copying refineries, compare input crude, refinery utilization and chemical outputs. Additional refineries cannot help if the real bottleneck is a blocked petroleum destination.