Crude Oil

Crude Oil is one of the natural resources in Dyson Sphere Program. It appears on life-bearing planets, including the starter planet, and is extracted from Crude Oil Seeps with an Oil Extractor. As a crafting material and fuel, it sits at the center of the game’s early and mid-game chemical production chains.

The usual next step is to send Crude Oil to an Oil Refinery and process it with Plasma Refining. This produces Refined Oil and Hydrogen, with a long crafting time by default. The outputs can then be fed into later refining steps, making Crude Oil a key input for a wide range of chemical and energetic production lines. Burning Crude Oil directly in a Thermal Power Station is possible, but refining it first is generally more efficient; processing it through Plasma Refining yields a net energy gain if the products are then used as fuel.

Crude Oil Vein output is not fixed. While an Oil Extractor is operating, the seep’s production rate gradually decreases over time according to its half-life, until it reaches a minimum production rate of 0.1/s. The default half-life is 12 hours of continuous extraction without any Veins Utilization upgrades. Before patch 0.7.18.6914, seep production did not decrease over time. Each seep has its own production rate, so total oil output depends on the specific deposits on the planet rather than a single universal value.

The Veins Utilization upgrade chain increases Crude Oil production by a flat +10% per level. Since each seep starts from its own base rate, the benefit scales directly from that individual source. Because of this, a planet with several strong seeps can remain productive for a very long time, and even a starting world often provides enough total oil to support a substantial portion of an entire playthrough.

• The starting planet typically has around 30/s total Crude Oil production spread across its seeps.
• Crude Oil burns for 1.5 s in a Thermal Power Station at full load, consuming 40 Crude Oil per minute.
• Refining Crude Oil into Refined Oil and Hydrogen is usually preferred over direct burning, especially when managing energy and chemical production together.
• A practical use of Plasma Refining is to derive the Hydrogen needed for Energy Matrix production while also generating an oil surplus, which reduces Hydrogen bottlenecks and preserves Crude Oil supplies.
• The total amount obtainable from a seep before it reaches the minimum production rate depends on its initial output and the half-life formula, so high-yield seeps are especially valuable for long-term planning.