Crude oil barrel

A Crude oil barrel is a filled-barrel item that contains Crude oil and is produced by the "Fill crude oil barrel" assembling process rather than by direct crafting. Filling consumes an Empty crude oil barrel and must be performed in an Assembling machine 2 or Assembling machine 3. Filled barrels cannot be produced by hand or with crafting; they are created only by the designated fill process which consumes empty barrels.

Empty crude oil barrels are craftable from steel plate and require the Fluid handling technology. When a Crude oil barrel is emptied using the corresponding emptying process, the assembling machine (Assembling machine 2 or Assembling machine 3) returns an Empty crude oil barrel and yields the Crude oil back into fluid form. Barrel filling and emptying recipes do not accept productivity modules or quality modules.

Crude oil barrels are primarily a logistics tool to move fluids when piping is impractical or impossible. They allow Crude oil to be transported by means other than pipes: on transport belts, by train, carried in a player inventory, moved by logistic robots, placed in vehicle inventories such as cars or tanks, or handled with inserters. Long-handed inserters can move barrels over gaps that cannot be bridged with pipe, such as over lava or a broken section of a space platform. Barrels are also useful when only a small quantity of a fluid is needed, for example to kickstart coal liquefaction with a small amount of Heavy oil or to supply a single unit of fluid to trigger specific recipes or researches such as uranium processing.

Practical notes and constraints:

• Filling and emptying must be done in Assembling machine 2 or Assembling machine 3; the processes consume or return Empty crude oil barrel as part of the recipe.
• Barrel fill/empty recipes cannot use productivity or module-based productivity/quality enhancements.
• Empty crude oil barrels are crafted from steel plate and require the Fluid handling technology research.
• Transport options for Crude oil barrel include belts, trains, logistic robots, vehicle inventories, and manual inventory; barrels bypass the need for pipe networks.
• Barrels are suitable for remote oil production sites, cross-environment transport (for example over hazardous terrain), or for moving fluids between separate factory areas or off-world transport setups.