Crude oil barrel

The crude oil barrel is an item used to store and transport one inventory-unit of crude oil without piping. It is created by the Fill crude oil barrel process, which consumes an empty barrel and crude oil in an assembling machine (Assembling machine 2 or 3). When a crude oil barrel is emptied the assembling machine returns an empty barrel along with the crude oil output (the Empty crude oil barrel process uses Assembling machine 2 or 3). Filled barrels cannot be crafted directly; empty barrels are produced from steel plate by the Empty barrel recipe, unlocked with Fluid handling.

Barrels provide a portable, non-pipe method to move fluids by belts, trains, logistic robots, vehicles or in the player’s inventory. They are especially useful when pipes are impractical or unavailable (for example when oil fields are distant from the main base, across lava, or on a space platform), and for moving fluids between planets in the Space Age. Long-handed inserters can pass barrels across gaps that pipes cannot bridge. Barrels are also convenient for small or one-off fluid requirements, such as supplying a single unit of heavy oil to start coal liquefaction or delivering a small amount of fluid to trigger a production step.

Practical details and interactions:

• Crafting and machines: Filling and emptying crude oil barrels must be done in Assembling machine 2 or Assembling machine 3. The fill and empty processes both consume production time as defined by the respective recipes.
• Empty barrel recipe: Empty barrels are produced from steel plate and require the Fluid handling technology.
• Reuse: Emptying a filled barrel returns an empty barrel, allowing barrels to be reused indefinitely.
• Module restrictions: Barrel filling and emptying recipes do not accept productivity or quality modules.
• Transport options: Crude oil barrels can be placed on transport belts, loaded into train wagons, carried by logistic robots, transported by vehicle, or kept in the player inventory.
• Niche uses: Use barrels to relocate small quantities of fluid, to supply remote or isolated facilities where pipes are impractical, or when moving fluid across hazardous terrain or gaps that block piping.