Empty __1__ barrel

Empty crude oil barrel is an item used to carry fluids in discrete units instead of using pipes. It can be crafted by hand and is a reusable container returned when a filled barrel is emptied in an appropriate machine. The technology required to unlock barrels and their handling is Fluid handling.

Empty crude oil barrels are useful when pipeline infrastructure is impractical or too distant from production sites. Barrels let you move fluids by regular logistics: they can be moved on belts, put into chests, carried in player inventory, loaded into wagons and trains, and otherwise treated like normal inventory items for long-distance transport or temporary storage.

• Crafting and technology: the empty barrel can be crafted by the player without specialized machines. Unlocking barrel recipes and related processes requires the Fluid handling technology.
• Filling and emptying: fluids are put into and removed from barrels using production facilities that handle fluid recipes. When an assembling machine empties a filled barrel as part of a recipe, it returns an Empty crude oil barrel to the output.
• Supported barrel types: barrels exist for many fluids and can be emptied to recover the empty container. Common filled barrel variants include Crude oil barrel, Heavy oil barrel, Light oil barrel, Lubricant barrel, Petroleum gas barrel, Sulfuric acid barrel, Water barrel, Fluoroketone (Hot) barrel, and Fluoroketone (Cold) barrel; emptying any of these yields an Empty crude oil barrel.
• Practical usage: use barrels to collect fluid at remote wells, transport fluids by train or logistic networks where laying pipes is inconvenient, or to store excess fluid in chests. Barrels simplify moving niche or intermittent fluid sources into your main factory without extending pipeline networks.
• Logistics considerations: because barrels are inventory items, they can clog belts or chests if overproduced; balance filling and emptying rates to avoid large backlogs of filled or empty barrels. Production facilities that consume or produce filled barrels should be paired with dedicated buffer chests or logistic wagons for smooth operation.