Re: Low Performing Oil Wells

by troshalom
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Low Performing Oil Wells

★★★ Guide

I have created and deleted several regions. In those regions I have had cities with one oil well, with Omega factories with the ability to drill for oil and cities that specialize in drilling for oil. I have maxed out the number of oil pump jacks and with some wells, just left the two jacks that come with them. And in every single one I get repeated messages that they are out of oil. The oil wells never pull the 1,200 barrels/day, it is always way below that. In the photo you see that my pumpjacks are all pulling just 475 barrels/day.

 

Since I am not playing in the sandbox, I don't have access to the upgraded pump jacks.

 

How can I get these pumpjacks to work at full capacity?

 

In every city in every region I have played the trade depot never has any oil whether I set it up to use locally, import or export. However, I have no problem filling the trade depots with coal and ore.

 

So what is wrong with the oil wells and how can I get them working efficiently and at optimal productivity?

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Accepted Solution

Re: Low Performing Oil Wells

Hero (Retired)

The commerce divisions won't have an effect on the amount of oil being stored. It looks like your depots are functioning correctly, I think you're just using a lot of oil. You don't have much extra, so there's not a lot of storage going on.

 

In your first screenshot that shows the oil set to export, once it fills to a "truckful" (1,000 gals) it will deliver to the region. A trade depot set to export will rarely have more than a truckful stored, unless you turn off all uses of the oil until it gets full. The one that is exporting *probably* delivered to the region and you received 9,000 simoleans for it. Hard to tell from the screenshot, as you also have it set to use locally, so it could have delivered to the Omega plant. 

 

If I were you, I would go into edit mode and bulldoze the freight warehouses. All depots come with a freight warehouse by default, and they're useless lol. They're a resource sink - the only reason you'll ever need a freight warehouse would be if you had so many industrial buildings that they were complaining they have nowhere to ship their freight. That almost never happens - and dumping the industrial freight into the warehouse means your commercial buildings aren't getting the freight they need. The system is not as well-designed as they had originally intended, some parts had to be reprogrammed early on - just look at your info tab and check out the Industrial "unfulfilled freight orders". You're shooting for a zero in that spot, to keep your Omega running smoothly. 

 

Delivery trucks are for "in city" delivery. So, if you're using your oil locally, you want to have the maximum amount of truck garages to make sure they deliver as soon as there's a truckful. If you're exporting, the region sends the trucks to pick up the oil, so you don't need any truck garages but you do need the warehouse. The oil gets delivered by the oil drill, so you want the drilling facility to have as many trucks as possible to deliver the oil to the places you're using it. If you're importing, again, it comes from the region, but you're importing to use it somewhere, so you'll want the trucks for the in-city delivery.

 

You will rarely, if ever, have any oil in a warehouse if you're exporting it - the oil gets delivered to the depot, the region sends a truck, and out it goes and you get simoleans. My guess is that your oil is being delivered to the exporting warehouse first and it's going out to the region. The exporting warehouse is probably closer or easier to get to from the drill site. On both, you also have them set to use locally (the button on the first info page that looks like 3 blocks), so there's a lot of movement going on with your oil.

 

There is so much involved in Omega, how it works, and how to optimize your city for it. If you're not opposed to watching videos, I highly recommend Skye Storme's Let's Play series. Click on the spoiler tag below for information on the parts of the series that have to do with Omega. Each video is about 15 minutes long. If you don't have time to watch all of them, you may want to watch the first couple on adding Omega to your city. He does a great job of explaining the process, and the VTOLs, as well as resource consumption (your oil)

Spoiler

Parts 1 - 5 show you how to build a base city with a traffic system that route the trucks from the Omega factories to all parts of the city. The city generates about $35,000 / hour 

Part 1 - http://youtu.be/xjB2trc4758

Part 2 - http://youtu.be/256FeN86bkY

Part 3 - http://youtu.be/sRFOczKAH0U

Part 4 - http://youtu.be/4gHbXefrSGc

Part 5 - http://youtu.be/AMbQ4_QGLNw

 

Parts 6 - 9 show you how to add Omega to your city and include detailed explanations of exactly how Omega works. Every building converts to Omega, and it ends up with over $400,000 / hour Omega profits.

Part 6 - http://youtu.be/CbCj1_x0Xo0

Part 7 - http://youtu.be/7sTIfXaqtN4

Part 8 - http://youtu.be/gYjgIn4BRb4

Part 9 - http://youtu.be/Oops1o6tbc7F8

His 60 second tips have some fun and useful general information, too.  Keep us posted - it sounds like you have a great plan, I'm excited to see how your region fills out. I'm always happy to help. Happy Building!

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Re: Low Performing Oil Wells

Hero (Retired)

Hi @troshalom - Oil wells will pull different amounts of oil depending on how much is in the ground. Over time, the amount they pull goes down - oil is not a renewable resource, so as you pump oil out of the ground, the available amount will start to deplete and you will eventually use up all the oil. When you first go to place a pump, if you hover it over the spot it will show the max capacity at that time, it can range quite a bit depending on the spot.That being said, the screenshot that you posted doesn't show a major depletion (the oil map will start to show gray areas around the pump), but maybe that particular area just didn't start out with very deep oil deposits. The amount you're going to pull daily is directly related to the amount that is there.

 

All that being said, you'll get closest to the max draw by drilling in the center of an oil deposit in a city that has the highest amount of oil - a "3" on the scale of resources that you see when you're claiming a city. A pump jack can pull up to 1200 / day, but that will drop dramatically as time goes on and you pump all the oil from that spot. You can move (by demolishing and rebuilding) the pumps from spot to spot to be efficient, but you will eventually run out of oil.

 

Trade depots need an oil warehouse to store the oil. If you have an oil warehouse, and you're not getting any oil in it, that most likely means that you have a traffic problem. I try to plop my trade depots as close to the highway entrance as possible, to give them a straight shot to and from the region. Delivery trucks can get stuck in regional traffic, or in your city traffic. You might also have an oil power plant that is using local oil. If your power plant is marked "Use Local" to supply it, the oil will deliver to your power plant to keep it running, so if you don't have enough to keep your power plant running AND store extra, you want the power plant to use the oil first.

 

Setting the trade depot to "Import" means that you're bringing in oil from the region, and paying for it. The delivery trucks will come with 500 gals at a time and drop it off in your trade depot. Traffic problems are the usual culprit, but you have to also give it enough time to deliver the oil. Watch your oil data map to see where the trucks are - maybe they're stuck out in the region, trying to get in to the city and can't deliver promptly.

 

Setting to "Export" means that you'll sell the oil that is in the warehouse, and receive the market value in simoleans. Again, traffic problems can mess with this if the oil can't get to the warehouse in an efficient manner. Make sure you have maximum delivery trucks at your depot and your oil well. You have to deliver the oil from the well to the depot, then from the depot to the region. 

 

Setting "Use Locally" does just that; it uses the oil that is stored for local uses. This can be a power plant or your Omega factories. If your Omega factories are using up all the oil that you're drilling, there probably isn't enough to deliver to the depot. Check other sources - plastics refineries, oil power plants, etc all use oil. If you set them to use locally, they will grab the oil out of the trade depots as soon as it's delivered if they need it.

 

Try setting everything to "Use Locally", then watch the oil data map to see where the trucks are going, where they may be stuck or even if you have somehow lost your trucks. Sometimes, especially if you're changing settings a lot, the delivery trucks get "lost" or bugged. If they're just sitting in a depot without moving for hours and your oil well gets filled with no deliveries, then  you can turn off the depot for a few sim-hours and then turn it back on. If that doesn't work, sometimes the only way is to demolish the truck garages and rebuild them. This will give you new trucks and let you start fresh.

 

Hope this helps - good luck, and Happy Building!

Message 2 of 4 (1,114 Views)

Re: Low Performing Oil Wells

★★★ Guide

 

Thanks that information, it is quite helpful.

 

I place my oil cities in the cities that have 3 bars and select the spot(s) to drill that have the most oil. I haven't played those cities for a full year or more than a year. 

 

I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that I didn't initially purchase the commerce portion of the Trade HQ nor add commerce to the Petroleum HQ.

 

I did add the commerce portion of the trade HQ, but didn't see the oil fill up at the depots.

 

Also, if I have the 2 VTOLs, do I need trucks, or even warehouses?

 

Thanks

Message 3 of 4 (1,107 Views)

Re: Low Performing Oil Wells

Hero (Retired)

The commerce divisions won't have an effect on the amount of oil being stored. It looks like your depots are functioning correctly, I think you're just using a lot of oil. You don't have much extra, so there's not a lot of storage going on.

 

In your first screenshot that shows the oil set to export, once it fills to a "truckful" (1,000 gals) it will deliver to the region. A trade depot set to export will rarely have more than a truckful stored, unless you turn off all uses of the oil until it gets full. The one that is exporting *probably* delivered to the region and you received 9,000 simoleans for it. Hard to tell from the screenshot, as you also have it set to use locally, so it could have delivered to the Omega plant. 

 

If I were you, I would go into edit mode and bulldoze the freight warehouses. All depots come with a freight warehouse by default, and they're useless lol. They're a resource sink - the only reason you'll ever need a freight warehouse would be if you had so many industrial buildings that they were complaining they have nowhere to ship their freight. That almost never happens - and dumping the industrial freight into the warehouse means your commercial buildings aren't getting the freight they need. The system is not as well-designed as they had originally intended, some parts had to be reprogrammed early on - just look at your info tab and check out the Industrial "unfulfilled freight orders". You're shooting for a zero in that spot, to keep your Omega running smoothly. 

 

Delivery trucks are for "in city" delivery. So, if you're using your oil locally, you want to have the maximum amount of truck garages to make sure they deliver as soon as there's a truckful. If you're exporting, the region sends the trucks to pick up the oil, so you don't need any truck garages but you do need the warehouse. The oil gets delivered by the oil drill, so you want the drilling facility to have as many trucks as possible to deliver the oil to the places you're using it. If you're importing, again, it comes from the region, but you're importing to use it somewhere, so you'll want the trucks for the in-city delivery.

 

You will rarely, if ever, have any oil in a warehouse if you're exporting it - the oil gets delivered to the depot, the region sends a truck, and out it goes and you get simoleans. My guess is that your oil is being delivered to the exporting warehouse first and it's going out to the region. The exporting warehouse is probably closer or easier to get to from the drill site. On both, you also have them set to use locally (the button on the first info page that looks like 3 blocks), so there's a lot of movement going on with your oil.

 

There is so much involved in Omega, how it works, and how to optimize your city for it. If you're not opposed to watching videos, I highly recommend Skye Storme's Let's Play series. Click on the spoiler tag below for information on the parts of the series that have to do with Omega. Each video is about 15 minutes long. If you don't have time to watch all of them, you may want to watch the first couple on adding Omega to your city. He does a great job of explaining the process, and the VTOLs, as well as resource consumption (your oil)

Spoiler

Parts 1 - 5 show you how to build a base city with a traffic system that route the trucks from the Omega factories to all parts of the city. The city generates about $35,000 / hour 

Part 1 - http://youtu.be/xjB2trc4758

Part 2 - http://youtu.be/256FeN86bkY

Part 3 - http://youtu.be/sRFOczKAH0U

Part 4 - http://youtu.be/4gHbXefrSGc

Part 5 - http://youtu.be/AMbQ4_QGLNw

 

Parts 6 - 9 show you how to add Omega to your city and include detailed explanations of exactly how Omega works. Every building converts to Omega, and it ends up with over $400,000 / hour Omega profits.

Part 6 - http://youtu.be/CbCj1_x0Xo0

Part 7 - http://youtu.be/7sTIfXaqtN4

Part 8 - http://youtu.be/gYjgIn4BRb4

Part 9 - http://youtu.be/Oops1o6tbc7F8

His 60 second tips have some fun and useful general information, too.  Keep us posted - it sounds like you have a great plan, I'm excited to see how your region fills out. I'm always happy to help. Happy Building!

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